Sarvam to build AI tools for all three armed forces under five-year defence MoU

Bengaluru-based Sarvam will build AI tools for decision support, training and operations across all three services under an umbrella MoU with HQ IDS, though neither side has disclosed costs, project numbers or deployment timelines.

Bengaluru-based AI firm Sarvam has entered a five-year memorandum of understanding with Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) under the Ministry of Defence, creating a common framework for artificial intelligence work across the Army, Navy and Air Force.

HQ IDS announced the agreement on October 26, and the company made it public on Tuesday (October 27). In a post on X, the defence ministry said the partners would cooperate on AI applications, research, knowledge management, training and decision support for the three services. The arrangement covers joint, tri-service and integrated organisations functioning under HQ IDS, a body created in 2001 on the recommendation of the Kargil Review Committee to coordinate planning and operations among the forces.

What the pact covers

Sarvam will design, build and deploy AI applications for the operational, training and decision-support needs of the forces, and provide technical support afterwards. HQ IDS will facilitate the engagement. The company says all participating organisations will draw on the same foundation models, agentic infrastructure, and geospatial and perception systems, allowing lessons from one service’s projects to inform others.

Priority areas include decision support, target acquisition and data fusion across the “sensor-to-shooter loop”, the chain running from detecting a target to engaging it. Human oversight will remain on operational decisions. Sarvam said the AI layer will be developed in India and run on sovereign infrastructure, and that planned projects include an “AI fabric” linking elements of the country’s defence capabilities.

“Sarvam exists to build AI in India, for India,” said co-founder Pratyush Kumar, who called the opportunity to work with the services an honour and a privilege.

The work will be handled by Chanakya, which Sarvam describes as a firewalled unit for national security and defence, announced on March 29. It is focused on on-premise deployments in air-gapped environments, which are cut off from the internet as classified military networks require. Chanakya will use Sarvam 105B, a foundation model open-sourced in February. Only 10.3 billion of its 105 billion parameters are active at once, owing to its Mixture-of-Experts design. It was unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit alongside a 30-billion-parameter model supporting 22 Indian languages.

Building on earlier defence work

The agreement follows Sarvam’s collaboration with the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington. On August 18, Commandant Lt Gen Manish Erry launched DRONA 2.0, a generative AI platform for training, research and strategic studies that runs on Sarvam 105B and open-source models. Co-founder Vivek Raghavan attended, and the two sides signed a separate MoU for further development. The platform sits on a GPU server inside the college’s secure network and was cleared by HQ IDS and the Defence Cyber Agency after security audits. Its first version went live on June 16, 2025.

Founded in 2023 by Raghavan and Kumar, Sarvam was chosen in 2025 to build India’s sovereign AI model under the IndiaAI Mission. In June it raised $234 million in the first close of a $300 million Series B at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation, with HCLTech putting in $150 million as lead strategic investor. A further $74 million from Nvidia, Activate, Glade Brook Capital and Gaja Capital in August completed the round.

The company tied the pact to the government’s Atmanirbharta, or self-reliance, drive in defence, which it says now extends to AI. The ministry’s efforts predate the deal: a 2019 order set up the Defence AI Council and Defence AI Project Agency, and a roadmap listing 70 projects was drawn up for defence public sector undertakings. According to Inc42, 89 percent of Indian defence tech startups say they have integrated AI into their products.