HCL invests in Sarvam and goes down the 5-layer AI cake

For decades, Indian IT grew and grew some more based on the labor arbitrage model: deploy engineers from Bangalore at one-sixth the cost of an American engineer, bill, repeat. The industry perfected the art of selling "services" instead of building and owning technology. But AI has quickly made the engineer a commodity. The big question now is how IT services will pivot and reinvent. A step in that direction was seen recently, when news spread that HCLTech looks all set to invest $150M into Sarvam and lead its latest funding round.  But what exactly is HCL buying and what is Sarvam selling? That's the crux of this episode of *Zero Shot*. Host Rohin Dharmakumar is joined by Abhishek Pathak, the lead IT analyst at Motilal Oswal and Kashyap Kompella, the founder of RPA2AI Research, who has spent 25 years across AI strategy, M&A advisory, and industry analysis. While both agree the investment signals a shift from applications, they debate the core tensions and questions surrounding this deal.  Tune in and hear them unpack the move that could define the shape IT services will take going forward.  \_\_\__ Additional material:  https://x.com/nathanclark\_/status/2056947354654355849?s=20 https://the-ken.com/story/google-meta-are-building-huge-data-centres-in-vizag-nobody-told-the-power-grid https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/hcltech-to-lead-300-million-sarvam-ai-round-with-150-million-bet-at-1-5-billion-valuation-13918719.html https://rpa2ai.com/about/team/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-pathak-841a3494 https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-5-layer-cake/ \_\_\__ This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN. \_\_\__ Zeus, the mascot of *Zero Shot,* was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. Write to us at Zeroshot@the-ken.com. We are all ears!