Paytm’s Sharma opens wallet for homegrown AI builders

New Delhi: Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has offered to back Indian entrepreneurs building their own artificial intelligence models with money from his own pocket. Speaking this week at Cypher 2026, the AI conference in Bengaluru, Sharma said he would write cheques of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore to founders willing to take on the challenge.

“Either come over, join us, or build your own and take money from me,” he said.

The offer turns a question India’s AI startup ecosystem has been debating, whether to build its own models or build on top of others’, into a personal commitment from one of the country’s best known technology founders.

Because Paytm is a listed company, Sharma said he cannot commit its funds to such bets. He did, however, offer founders the reach of Paytm’s distribution network to get their products in front of customers.

Sharma, who brought mobile payments to India’s shop counters through the QR codes and the Soundbox, drew on that experience. He recalled predicting years ago that India would become a global benchmark in payments, and said that prediction had held up.

He now wants the same ambition in AI.