The three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2024, which concluded on Thursday and witnessed a footfall of over 50,000 attendees, saw the Karnataka government aiming to position the state as the top technology innovation hub for the world.

Addressing a press conference, State IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge said, “Karnataka is propelling globally and we are working on such corridors with various countries.”

BTS 2024 saw participation from 51 countries, where during the three-day summit, the state government entered into partnerships with several countries such as Germany, Finland, United States, Japan, and Sweden.

According to the minister, these partnerships will be focused on specific areas of technology collaboration with each of the countries which is expected to go a long way in enhancing cooperation.

The three-day summit also saw the Karnataka government unveiling numerous policy initiatives encompassing the technology industry, startups and space industry. The state also came out with a separate global capability centre (GCC) policy with the goal of attracting around 500 such units, to generate a revenue of around $50 billion and create additional 3.5 lakh jobs.

Similarly, the government also came out with a space tech policy where it aims to garner 50% market share by 2033 in the country. It also unveiled a tech skilling initiative called Nipuna and signed a memorandum of understanding with leading global technology companies.

The minister noted that IT services export from the state stood at Rs 4.11 lakh crore for 2023-24. In 2022-23, the IT services export from Karnataka was Rs 3.2 lakh crore.

The Startup Springboard initiative unveiled at BTS 2024 saw over 185 startups pitching their ideas to 68 investors, with 120 emerging startups receiving mentorship.

“We have created the most conducive platform for the startups in the country,” the minister said.

The goal now is to have more than 10,000 startups from outside of the state capital, Bengaluru.

The Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024 witnessed 84 sessions with participation of 521 speakers. The event featured 686 exhibitors including 403 startups, 4,775 meetings exchanged, 570 meetings were conducted in the B2B Lounge, along with 35 on-the-spot physical meetings at the venue. It also had participation from several academic institutions.

On plans for next year, the minister said, “Next year’s summit will be bigger, better and bolder.”

Artificial intelligence holds the power to enhance productivity and drive innovation, says Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). 

Reflecting on her three-decade career in the semiconductor industry, Su described AI as the “most impactful and high-potential technology” she has encountered. 

“AI is this technology that can make all of us more productive, all of our companies more productive, make all of our discoveries more capable. It’s an opportunity for us to take computing to the next level,” Su stated. 

“I think we are just at the very beginning of what AI is capable of. It allows us to solve some of the most important problems in the world, and help us find the next discoveries, whether you’re talking about medicine, climate, or science. AI is the next logical step,” she added.

Su, who was recognised in TIME’s ‘Most Influential People in AI 2024’, was speaking at a closed event at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru on Thursday. 

She disclosed that roughly 8,000 of the chipmaker’s 27,000 global employees are engineers based in India, making up 25% of its total workforce.

Su highlighted how AI has evolved from an expert-only field to a technology accessible to all, due to the advent of GenAI and large language models like ChatGPT in the last two years. 

“We have taken what was now expert technology, and we’ve moved AI to something where everybody can touch and feel it..because when you’re able to use natural language to unlock computing capability, that all of a sudden changes who can use it,” she explained.

A direct competitor to NVIDIA, AMD is a semiconductor giant known for its high-performance computer processors and graphics technologies.

Addressing AMD’s strategy, Su further underscored the importance of versatility in computing solutions.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the future of compute. You’re going to need to use the right compute for the right application. For example, a lot of conversation is around sorting the largest GPUs and accelerators for the cloud, along with running the training and inferencing on the largest language model. But we do expect that they’re going to be models of all sizes,” she said. 

AMD is focusing on an end-to-end AI strategy that spans cloud, edge, and client devices, she added. “We believe everyone should have their own AI PC that allows you to run your models locally and operate on your data.”

Su also spoke about how the chipmaker is focusing heavily on collaboration through open-source initiatives. “Our strategy is that the world needs an open-source software environment. It shouldn’t matter whether it’s AMD or NVIDIA as the hardware layer—you want to build on top of that with software and underneath abstraction. We’re investing significantly in all of the tools, compilers, and abstraction layers that will allow us to build an open-source ecosystem,” she noted.

Growth Sense Venture Fund on Thursday said it has got approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Category-1 Angel Fund for investments into early stage startups.

A Category-1 AIF means that the fund primarily invests in sectors that are considered to be socially or economically beneficial by the government such as social ventures, small and medium enterprises.

The fund has a corpus of Rs 100 crore and is sector agnostic, which helps the company broaden its scope of its investment.

Growth Sense, the investment manager for the fund, has made over 88 investments to date with six startups showing over 100% IRR (internal rate of return). IRR is a metric that is used to calculate the profitability of an investment.

“Receiving SEBI approval marks an exciting milestone for Growth Sense Venture Fund. This fund allows us to channel investor capital into startups that are not only poised for growth but are delivering real value to the Indian economy. Our team is dedicated to supporting India’s most promising startups with capital, mentorship, and strategic resources,” said Sanjay Sarda, Co-founder of Growth Sense.

The fund aims to provide startups with access to partnerships, guidance, and operational support and focuses on high-potential ventures.

The firm’s current portfolio includes, edtech startup Klassroom, hostel booking platform Homversity, and pet service aggregator platform Petmojo, among others.

Additionally, the Growth Sense ecosystem includes associate companies such as founder-investor marketplace Growth91, technology solution provider Growth Metaverse, branding and digital marketing service provider Growth Alpha, legal and regulatory service provider Growth Compliances and cybersecurity product INVIdata.

The firm’s fund is open for investment and allows individuals with a certain level of net worth and corporations to contribute.