Indian companies look to Chinese LLMs as AI costs bite

Indian companies are increasingly adopting Chinese large language models from DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI to reduce AI costs, raising concerns about India's AI sovereignty and its reliance on a geopolitical rival.

Artificial intelligence /business/technology/artificial-intelligence Indian companies look to Chinese LLMs as AI costs bite DeepSeek and others winning on price but concerns over foreign reliance loom Indian companies are turning to Chinese artificial intelligence models amid cost pressures, raising questions about the South Asian nation's ambitions around AI sovereignty. Nikkei montage/Source photos by Reuters BENGALURU -- Indian companies are increasingly leaning on Chinese large language models LLMs developed by DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI to contain their artificial intelligence spends, extending India's reliance on China for cutting-edge technologies despite a long history of standoffs between the neighbors.