Bengaluru: Indian AI startup Sarvam AI has appointed Devendra Singh Chaplot, an IIT Bombay graduate and one of Silicon Valley’s leading artificial intelligence researchers, as an advisor. The move is being seen as a major boost to Sarvam’s ambitions of building globally competitive AI models capable of challenging industry leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The announcement was made during Sarvam AI’s Epoch 2026 developer conference in Bengaluru, where the company unveiled new initiatives aimed at accelerating India’s sovereign AI ecosystem. Chaplot’s appointment is expected to strengthen the startup’s research capabilities as it competes in the rapidly evolving generative AI race.

From IIT Bombay to Silicon Valley

Devendra Chaplot graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay before pursuing advanced research in artificial intelligence.

Over the years, he has built an impressive career at some of the world’s most influential AI organisations. He has worked at Mistral AI, Thinking Machines Lab—the startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati—and Elon Musk’s xAI, contributing to cutting-edge research in large language models and autonomous AI systems.

Joins Sarvam AI as advisor

Rather than joining the company in a full-time operational role, Chaplot will serve as an advisor, helping Sarvam strengthen its long-term AI research strategy.

According to the company, his expertise will support the development of next-generation foundation models tailored for Indian languages and global enterprise applications. His appointment reflects Sarvam’s growing focus on attracting internationally recognised AI researchers to build advanced indigenous technology.

Sarvam’s global ambitions

Sarvam AI has emerged as one of India’s most prominent artificial intelligence startups since its founding in 2023.

Backed by major investors and selected under the IndiaAI Mission to help build sovereign large language models, the Bengaluru-based company has launched open-weight AI models designed for multilingual reasoning, coding and enterprise use. The startup aims to reduce India’s dependence on foreign AI platforms while competing with companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

Why Chaplot’s appointment matters

Industry experts believe Chaplot’s experience across multiple frontier AI laboratories gives Sarvam access to insights from some of the world’s most advanced AI research environments.

His work spans reinforcement learning, robotics, multimodal systems and foundation model development, areas considered crucial for the next generation of artificial intelligence. The appointment is expected to strengthen Sarvam’s technical leadership as competition intensifies globally.

AI race heats up

The announcement comes at a time when competition among AI companies is accelerating rapidly.

Global firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI and Mistral AI continue releasing increasingly capable foundation models. At the same time, governments around the world are investing heavily in sovereign AI initiatives to develop domestic alternatives for strategic and security reasons. India has also prioritised indigenous AI development through the IndiaAI Mission.

Sarvam expands research ecosystem

During the Epoch 2026 conference, Sarvam highlighted its efforts to build an open AI ecosystem focused on Indian developers, enterprises and public sector applications.

The company said partnerships with experienced researchers and academic institutions will play a key role in improving multilingual capabilities, reasoning performance and safety across its future AI models.

Conclusion

Devendra Chaplot’s appointment marks an important milestone for Sarvam AI as it seeks to establish itself among the world’s leading AI companies. With experience spanning Mistral AI, Thinking Machines Lab and xAI, the IIT Bombay graduate is expected to help strengthen India’s push to develop globally competitive foundation models capable of taking on OpenAI, Anthropic and other frontier AI developers.