Shodh AI Launches India’s First Generative AI Model for Material Science in Collaboration with NVIDIA

NEW DELHI : Shodh AI, selected as one of the twelve foundational model companies
under the Government of India’s prestigious IndiaAI Mission, today
announced the launch of Project Skanda. As an “AI for Science”
company currently targeting material discovery, Shodh AI developed this model
in collaboration with NVIDIA to mark India’s entry into the global race for Physical
AI.

At the India AI Impact
Summit, Shodh AI unveiled the Alpha Release of Project Skanda—one of the
world’s first Mesoscale Foundation Models for Energy Storage. While traditional
AI models focus on atomic chemistry, Skanda targets the
“Mesoscale”—the invisible structural architecture inside a battery
cell that determines its life, safety, and charging speed. The model is trained
specifically for battery clients to drastically accelerate their discovery
process.

According to Dr. Arastu
Sharma, CEO of Shodh AI, Project Skanda leverages NVIDIA Hopper GPUs and the
PhysicsNeMo framework to bridge the gap between theory and manufacturing.

“Currently, you can
upload an SEM image into the model, and it will predict the battery life cycle.
Within a year, we aim to enable users to simply ask for a new battery
chemistry, and Skanda will provide the methodology to make it,” said Dr.
Arastu. “Right now, it takes our clients nearly ten years and millions of
dollars to develop a new material. Our goal is to compress that timeline to six
months for a new material, all within a million dollars.”

Tim Costa, General
Manager at NVIDIA, highlighted the significance of the collaboration, stating,
“AI is accelerating the pace of scientific discovery. Shodh AI’s use of NVIDIA
technology provides a powerful foundation for building sovereign AI models that
can help transform India’s energy and technology sectors.”

By combining
cutting-edge artificial intelligence with robotic automation, Shodh AI is
positioning itself as a key player in India’s journey toward becoming a global
scientific leader.

At the heart of this
initiative is a vision shared by the Prime Minister—that India should not only
use technology developed elsewhere but create its own. “Our interaction with
the Hon’ble Prime Minister reinforced a clear vision: India must not just
consume technology, but create it,” said Dr. Arastu. He noted that Project
Skanda represents a strategic shift toward “Invent in India.” Shodh AI has been
given a broader mandate to build the ‘scientific brain’ of the nation, earning
direct recognition from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for its leadership in
developing India’s foundational technologies.

Shodh AI is now
shifting the focus from Large Language Models to Large Science Models. Powered
by its collaboration with NVIDIA, the same core technology is poised to
redefine healthcare and biotechnology. In deep tech and material sciences,
Shodh AI is bridging the gap between theory and reality through India’s first
Autonomous Robotic Material Foundry, where AI not only predicts next-generation
quantum materials and bio-compatible implants but autonomously synthesizes
them.

This
marks a strategic transition from “Make in India” to “Invent in India,”
ensuring that the nation does not merely participate in the future of
technology, but actively builds it. Shodh AI stands as a testament to this
vision: built in India, built for the world for the next AI race of science.