Deadline: 3:30 pm IST, October 29, 2026. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which implements the IndiaAI Mission, has opened a seven-day bid window for empanelment as an AI compute provider — with bids accepted from 9:00 am IST on October 22 to 3:30 pm IST on October 29, 2026, reported AI&GP on October 19, 2026.

The RFE (C-DAC/GPU/01/2026, dated October 7, 2026) covers up to 10,000 AI compute units — H100, H200-class or later accelerators — in clusters of at least 512 units at a single Indian data centre. Empanelled firms become the pool from which ministries, universities, startups and industry will rent sovereign GPUs for years, with procurement running in Stage 2 through GeM.

Eligibility

Bidders need average audited annual turnover of at least ₹120 crore (FY 2023-24 to 2025-26), positive net worth, and an owned, leased or co-located Tier-III or better data centre in India. They must have 512 compute units installed or a guarantee-backed order to install them within six months, keep all data, logs, backups and disaster recovery in India, submit a Make in India declaration, and not be from a land-border country. The pass mark is 60 of 100.

How to apply

Submissions go through the Central Public Procurement Portal (Tender ID 2026_DIT_929273_1); bidders sign a bid-securing declaration instead of paying earnest money, and technical bids open at 4:00 pm IST on October 30. One watch-out flagged in reporting: the RFE text mentions the deployment guarantee as ₹10 crore in some clauses and ₹30 crore in others — seek written clarification from C-DAC before the window closes.

Why it matters for founders

For AI startups, this is the supply side of compute getting built: empanelled providers will rent sovereign GPUs to startups at government-negotiated terms. Even if you're not a bidder, track the outcome — cheaper domestic GPU access changes unit economics for every Indian AI startup training or serving models at scale.