In a surprising development, Ola Electric, traditionally known for its electric scooters and ride-hailing services in India, is making a significant leap into the AI hardware sector.
The company has announced its plans to launch a new family of AI chips, marking a major milestone for India’s tech industry.
The first set of AI chips, expected in 2026, includes three models: Bodhi 1, Ojas, and Sarv 1. Bodhi 1 is particularly notable as it will be the first AI chip designed and manufactured in India.
This chip is tailored for AI inferencing and high-performance vision processing, offering impressive power efficiency—an important factor as AI systems become more demanding.
Ojas, the second chip, targets edge AI applications and will be used in various sectors, including automotive and IoT. Ola aims to integrate Ojas into its future electric vehicles for enhanced features like advanced driver assistance systems.
The third model, Sarv 1, is a general-purpose server CPU designed to meet the needs of data centers dealing with high AI computing demands.
Although Ola Electric showcased the performance of these chips against Nvidia GPUs, details on the specific Nvidia model used and the fabrication process remain unclear, leading to some industry skepticism.
Nonetheless, this move underscores India’s growing ambitions in the AI space and positions Ola Electric as a key player in the global AI hardware market.