Bhavish Aggarwal is an Indian entrepreneur and technology leader. He co-founded Ola, one of India’s leading mobility platforms and later founded Ola Electric, a major player in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. Building on his success in mobility and EV technology, Aggarwal launched Krutrim, an artificial intelligence start-up focused on large language models and AI infrastructure.
Key Contribution
Aggarwal’s most recent and widely covered work centers around Krutrim, his AI venture launched in 2023. Krutrim is positioned as “India’s own AI” initiative, aimed at developing large language models (LLMs) that understand and generate text in multiple Indian languages, tailored to Indian data and cultural contexts.
In January 2024, Krutrim achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding USD 1 billion, making it the first Indian AI start-up to reach this milestone, a significant development for the nation’s AI ecosystem.
Under Aggarwal’s leadership, Krutrim has announced ambitious plans to design and launch India’s first AI chips by 2026 and to build large-scale data center infrastructure essential for supporting advanced AI computation.
Impact on Tech, Media & Digital Communication
Aggarwal’s work intersects strongly with digital content creation, AI communication tools, and the broader narrative of India’s technological self-reliance. The Krutrim models are trained on vast quantities of Indian language data, making them potentially influential in shaping how AI interfaces engage with users in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and other languages, making it a critical factor for digital inclusion in a multilingual society.
Krutrim’s public launch leveraged digital platforms and social media announcements to build awareness, positioning it against global AI competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. This kind of strategic communication reflects a growing trend where technology leaders must also act as digital narrators, shaping public perception around AI innovation and national technological capacity.
Current Status
In 2025–26, Krutrim remains a trending enterprise within India’s AI ecosystem. It has pursued significant partnerships and infrastructure commitments, including funding efforts backed by both private investment and strategic moves from Ola’s associated companies to finance data center development.
However, reports also indicate that the company has faced operational challenges, including strategic restructuring, layoffs and leadership transition issues that reflect the broader volatility in AI start-up environments globally.
Despite these headwinds, Aggarwal continues to publicly advocate for an Indian-centric AI ecosystem, reinforcing his relevance not only as a founder but also as a thought leader in digital transformation and national technological ambition.
Conclusion
Bhavish Aggarwal exemplifies a new category of Indian technology entrepreneur who is not only building large-scale digital businesses but also actively shaping the narrative of AI innovation with localized relevance. His work with Krutrim highlights the intersection of technology development, national digital strategy and the cultural positioning of AI, all of which make him a significant and current personality in tech and media discourse in India.