India’s data trove: Don’t grant AI majors free access to this strategic asset—use it as leverage instead

India is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest AI user bases. The question now is how it can turn that scale into superpower status rather than just training Silicon Valley for free.That will be a tall order for a country largely caught flat-footed by the boom. But let’s start with the basics: The three main building blocks of AI are talent, compute (including high-end chips and infrastructure) and data.

India doesn’t lack engineers, but it currently doesn’t have foundational research training at scale or enough advanced processors at public labs and universities. What it has, in abundance, is data. It should treat this like a strategic asset instead of leaking it out as a free export.It’s a key reason US Big Tech is making a blitz for the market.

With roughly a billion people online and a massive mobile-first population, India generates a torrent of the kind of human feedback that makes AI systems better on a daily basis. The world’s most-populous country is the second-biggest user base of both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude after the US, while accounting for just a fraction of these platforms’ revenue. The dynamic exposes how much more the market matters for training purposes right now than making money.These free-to-use services and promotions aimed at Indian phone users come with a cost.

It’s part of a strategic Silicon Valley grab for Indian languages, voices and behaviours that will make foreign systems smarter first. The South Asian nation risks repeating a familiar historical pattern of exporting the raw materials for pennies then buying back imported models at a premium. Meanwhile, it will be left to absorb a job shock and social impacts at home.