Silicon Valley moved with lightning speed to acquire Peter Steinberger's OpenClaw, a hobby project that went viral in January, while India's arguably superior Sarvam AI has struggled to secure comparable investment despite being the country's best AI model. The stark contrast between how these two AI projects were treated reveals a deeper problem: India Inc's risk-averse mindset is costing the nation its chance to compete in the AI revolution.

How Did OpenClaw Become a Silicon Valley Sensation?

Steinberger, an Austrian engineer, created ClawdBot, later renamed OpenClaw, as what he described as a hobby project. The product itself was not cutting-edge technology by Silicon Valley standards. Yet within days of going viral in January, Steinberger's phone was flooded with calls from some of the biggest billionaires in tech. Within two weeks, he announced he was joining OpenAI. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire both Steinberger and his OpenClaw technology, though the exact figure has never been publicly disclosed.

The speed and scale of this acquisition illustrate how Silicon Valley operates. Companies in the region are constantly taking calculated risks on ideas that may or may not pan out. They invest aggressively even when projects seem impractical or unproven, betting that the potential upside justifies the risk. This venture-capital mindset has become the engine of American tech innovation.

Why Is Sarvam AI Struggling Despite Being Better?

Sarvam AI, by most accounts, is arguably the best AI model currently developed in India. Yet the company has faced significant difficulty raising capital to advance to the next stage of development. In June, Sarvam announced Series B funding of $300 million, which sounds substantial until compared to what even smaller AI companies are raising in the United States and China.

More troubling is the lack of support from India's own corporate giants. Global investors like SoftBank have been hesitant to back Sarvam, but the real tragedy, according to industry observers, is that no major Indian company has stepped forward with meaningful investment. Not TCS, not Infosys, not Reliance, not Tata. Only HCL Tech has shown support. These are some of the richest and most powerful corporations in India, yet none has been willing to commit a billion or two to what could be a transformational technology.

What Is the "Dhandho Mindset" Holding India Back?

The term "dhandho" refers to a business philosophy focused on low-risk, high-margin trading with minimal capital investment. Applied to modern corporate strategy, it describes an approach that prioritizes immediate returns and avoids long-term bets on uncertain ventures. This mindset, according to industry analysis, dominates Indian boardrooms and is directly responsible for India's failure to build frontier AI models.

The data backs this up. According to a 2024 report titled "Study of Corporate Sector Data on Research and Development Expenditure by top 1000 Listed Companies in India," supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, India's R&D spending as a percentage of GDP has stagnated at around 0.7 percent, significantly lower than the global average. The report concluded that "the current expenditure on R&D in India does seem incommensurate to its aspirations and its development agenda".

The contrast with Silicon Valley is stark. While Indian IT companies spend between 0.5 and 1.6 percent of revenue on R&D, companies in Silicon Valley typically invest 15 to 25 percent of revenue in research and development. This gap represents not just a difference in spending, but a fundamental difference in how these regions approach innovation.

How Much Are India's Biggest Companies Actually Investing in R&D?

• Infosys: Spent just 0.9 percent of total revenue on R&D in 2022-23, despite being one of India's largest IT services companies.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS): Allocated 1.30 percent of revenue to R&D, the second-largest IT company in India.
• Wipro: Invested only 0.5 percent of revenue in R&D, the lowest among major IT firms.
• HCL Technologies: Committed 1.60 percent of revenue to R&D, the highest among the major Indian IT companies.
• Reliance Industries: Spent only 0.53 percent of total turnover on R&D despite being a conglomerate with massive resources.
• Tata Steel: Allocated 0.67 percent of revenue to R&D.
• Maruti Suzuki: Invested 0.65 percent of revenue in R&D.

These figures are described as "abysmal" by industry observers and represent a clear result of the dhandho mindset that governs Indian corporate strategy.

What Does This Mean for India's Global Position?

The consequences extend far beyond stock market performance. India risks losing its strategic position in the world because India Inc cannot look beyond its current balance sheet. Last week, the United States banned the use of advanced AI tools like Mythos and Fable 5 for the rest of the world. This move has sparked concern in Indian tech circles about the country's ability to compete in an AI-dominated future.

The Indian IT sector is already facing adverse business prospects due to AI tools from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. Money is flowing out of Indian tech stocks in search of AI and deep tech companies, which India cannot offer. Meanwhile, the bull market is surging in Taiwan and South Korea, countries that have invested heavily in frontier technology development.

The fundamental problem is clear: India Inc refuses to invest in research and development or bet on unproven ideas. How can India develop its own AI capabilities when no major Indian company would dare spend $10 million on a two-week-old idea, as OpenAI did with OpenClaw? The answer, according to industry analysis, is that it cannot.

As the world transitions to an AI and deep tech economy, India faces a critical choice. The country can continue following the dhandho playbook of low-risk, low-innovation business strategy, or it can embrace the venture-capital mindset that has made Silicon Valley the global center of technological innovation. The OpenClaw versus Sarvam AI story suggests that without a fundamental shift in how India's largest companies approach risk and innovation, the country will continue to fall further behind.