DPDP Act
Sets duties and penalties for how organisations handle personal data.
Guide · Sovereign Super Intelligence (SI), our name for AI you own
Sovereign AI in India: own it or subscribe
Sovereign AI is AI an organisation controls: it chooses the models, decides where they run and what data may leave, and has a person approve the actions that matter. In India there are three common routes: a cloud AI API, AI hosted in an Indian cloud, or AI you own on your own servers. BiltIQ offers the last one.
We'll walk you through it on sample data.
- Questions that tell you whether your AI is sovereign
- 4
- Ways to get AI in India, compared
- 3
- Own it: site licence, one-time, ex-GST
- ₹50–90 L
- Agent OS outbound calls, blocked by default (platform gate)
- Off
Four questions
What sovereign AI means: four questions to ask
Which model?
Who chose it, where it comes from, and whether you can swap it.
Where does it run?
On your servers, in a cloud in India, or on a vendor's servers abroad.
What leaves the building?
Prompts, documents, logs and outbound calls.
Who approves actions?
Whether a named person signs off before the system changes records or sends anything out.
An organisation with sovereign SI can answer all four in writing.
Three routes
Three ways to get AI in India, compared
| Cloud AI API | AI hosted in an Indian cloud | Own it on your servers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where models run | Vendor's servers | A provider's data centre in India | Your GPU server, inside your walls |
| Who picks the model | Vendor | Provider, from its catalogue | You, from open-weight models |
| What leaves your site | Prompts and documents go to the vendor | Prompts and documents go to the provider | Nothing has to; you set outbound rules |
| How you pay | Metered, per use | Metered or reserved capacity | One-time licence + yearly service; hardware |
| What you control | Varies by contract | Varies by contract | The server, the models and the rules |
Comparison by category, typical cases. Check any provider's current terms.
Why now
Why Indian organisations are asking about sovereign AI now
RBI FREE-AI
Recommends a board-approved AI policy.
Model origin
Defence and government buyers check each model's origin under Public Procurement No. 1.
Metered cost
Cloud models are metered, so every new user adds to the bill.
Own it or subscribe
BiltIQ's answer: own your SI, or subscribe
| Own it (on sale now for AI Factory and Agent OS; Learning OS is not yet available to own) | Subscribe (not yet on sale) | |
|---|---|---|
| For | Enterprises, defence and government, large colleges | Small firms, MSMEs, smaller colleges and schools |
| Runs on | Your own GPU server | BiltIQ's GPU cluster in India |
| You pay | Site licence ₹50–90 L one-time (₹35 L platform-only) + managed service ₹16–18 L a year; hardware at cost; ex-GST | SaaS + API tokens (₹8 per 1M input / ₹28 per 1M output tokens) |
| Start with | A paid pilot, ₹5–8 L, credited against the licence | The 2027 waitlist |
Four products
The sovereign SI platform: four products
AI Factory.
The GPU server and open-weight model serving, installed on your premises and run as a managed service. Serving runs a single node per model today; multi-node serving is written, not yet in use.
Agent OS (the core)
Agents that read tenders, contracts and claims and cite the page. Outbound calls are blocked by default (platform gate). Irreversible and high-consequence actions pause for human approval. 97 agents built; 11 pass all 7 of our quality checks.
Business OS.
ERP and CRM with GST, GSTR-1 export and UAE VAT (5%) with a monthly VAT summary; the 23 tools that change data wait for a person.
Learning OS.
An LMS and an AI Teacher that answers from the course book with chapter and page.
Model-agnostic: open-weight models chosen per buyer. NVIDIA Nemotron by default for defence and PSU; Qwen3.8-27B for reasoning where allowed.
Limits
What sovereign does not mean, in our products today
The gate comes with Agent OS.
Only Agent OS blocks outbound calls by default. AI Factory serves models on your server; the platform gate is added with Agent OS.
Business OS files.
Attachments and documents are stored in cloud storage (GCS or S3) today; on-prem file storage is a roadmap item.
Learning OS.
It is not yet available to own on-prem. AI Teacher's embeddings, vision and voice default to cloud services and can be repointed.
Cost.
Owning costs more up front. At low volume, a cloud AI API can be cheaper.
We state these up front so your security team can plan for them.
Start
How to start with sovereign SI
Scoping call.
30 minutes with our team; NDA available. We walk you through it on sample data.
Paid pilot.
4–6 weeks on your own documents, ₹5–8 L, credited against the licence. NDA first; on your server or a BiltIQ loaner, your documents stay on site.
Site licence and managed service.
Updates, monitoring, a quarterly review and agent tuning; business hours IST support, 4-hour site-down response.
Not ready to talk? Download the GPU sizing sheet or the DPDP AI readiness checklist.
Key facts
Key facts: Sovereign AI pillar
- BiltIQ gives every organisation its own AI: own it on your servers, or subscribe to ours in India. Subscribe is not yet on sale.BiltIQ
- Own it: site licence ₹50–90 L one-time (₹35 L platform-only) + managed service ₹16–18 L a year; hardware at cost; paid pilot ₹5–8 L, credited. Ex-GST.BiltIQ price list, Oct 2026
- In Agent OS, outbound calls are blocked by default; irreversible and high-consequence actions pause for human approval.BiltIQ code review, Oct 2026
- Serving runs a single node per model today; multi-node serving is written, not yet in use.BiltIQ code review, Oct 2026
- Business OS stores files in GCS or S3 today; Learning OS is not yet available to own on-prem.BiltIQ code review, Oct 2026
- The DPDP Act sets duties and penalties for how organisations handle personal data.DPDP Act 2023
FAQ
FAQ
What is sovereign AI?
Sovereign AI is AI an organisation controls. It chooses the models, decides where they run and what data may leave, and has a named person approve high-consequence actions. For most Indian buyers it means running open-weight models on servers they own, or on a provider's servers in India under clear terms. BiltIQ calls this sovereign SI: AI you own.
Is sovereign AI the same as AI hosted in an Indian data centre?
Not quite. Hosting in India answers where the servers are, but the provider still runs them, and your prompts and documents still leave your building. Sovereign SI in the fuller sense also covers who picks the model, which outbound calls are allowed and who approves actions. Owning the server answers all of these; a hosted service answers some of them.
Does sovereign AI mean nothing ever touches the cloud?
Not in every product today, and we say so. In Agent OS, outbound calls are blocked by default by the platform gate. Business OS stores attachments in GCS or S3 cloud storage today, with on-prem file storage on the roadmap. AI Teacher's embeddings, vision and voice default to cloud services and can be repointed.
Is owning AI cheaper than a cloud AI API?
It depends on your volume. A cloud AI API is metered, so cost grows with every user and query. Owning your SI costs a one-time licence of ₹50–90 L plus ₹16–18 L a year, with hardware at cost, so the cost per query falls as use grows. At low volume, a cloud API can be cheaper. We work out your case on a scoping call.
Which AI models can run on your own servers?
BiltIQ is model-agnostic: open-weight models chosen per buyer. NVIDIA Nemotron by default for defence and PSU; Qwen3.8-27B for reasoning where allowed. Each model runs on a single node today; multi-node serving is written but not yet in use. Fine-tuned domain models come after our next GPU expansion, so we promise none before then.
How do we start with sovereign AI?
Book a scoping call: 30 minutes with our team, NDA available, with a walk-through on sample data. If it fits, run a paid pilot of 4–6 weeks on your own documents, ₹5–8 L, credited against the licence. You get a findings report against your manual results, then decide on the licence. The subscription is not yet on sale.
on-premise LLM platformAI agents with human approvalAI ERP and CRMAI LMS and AI tutoron-premise AI pricingon-premise LLM in Indiasovereign AI for defenceown your AI vs a cloud AI API
Work out what sovereign SI means for your organisation
We'll walk you through it on sample data. Or write to [email protected], or call or WhatsApp +91 89868 60088 (messages go straight to our CRM).