Tamil Nadu has taken a landmark step toward building sovereign artificial intelligence capabilities by signing a memorandum of understanding with Sarvam AI to establish India’s first full stack Sovereign AI Park in Chennai, with an initial investment of ₹10,000 crore. The agreement was exchanged on January 13 in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin, Industries Minister Dr. TRB Rajaa, senior government officials, and Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar, marking the formal launch of a state-controlled AI ecosystem designed to keep data, models, and computing infrastructure within a trusted national boundary.
The proposed Sovereign AI Park will be developed as a dedicated AI district, bringing together large-scale AI compute infrastructure, secure data frameworks, advanced model research laboratories, and innovation clusters. A key component of the project will be the establishment of an Institute for AI in Governance, focused on developing and deploying AI solutions tailored for public sector use cases. Officials said the initiative aims to enable AI adoption across critical sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, and citizen services, while ensuring that sensitive government and citizen data does not leave the state-controlled framework.
The project is expected to generate around 1,000 high-skilled jobs spanning AI research, infrastructure engineering, and governance-focused technology roles. By anchoring advanced AI capabilities within Tamil Nadu, the state aims to position itself as a national hub for trusted and policy-aligned AI development, supporting both innovation and regulatory oversight.
Sarvam AI, which was earlier selected under the IndiaAI Mission to build India’s first sovereign large language model, will play a central role in the park’s development. The company will train and deploy its AI models entirely within India, leveraging high-performance computing resources hosted inside the proposed facility. This approach aligns with India’s broader push for digital sovereignty, ensuring compliance with domestic data governance, security, and regulatory requirements.
According to reports, Sarvam AI’s foundational sovereign language model is scheduled to be released next month at the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The model is expected to support multilingual and India-specific use cases, reinforcing the government’s vision of building AI systems that are both globally competitive and locally grounded.
With this initiative, Tamil Nadu becomes the first state to formally commit to a full stack sovereign AI ecosystem at scale, setting a precedent for how governments can combine public infrastructure, private innovation, and regulatory control to shape the future of responsible and secure artificial intelligence in India.
