India AI push: Google announces market access program, new additions to Gemma open model family

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) Google on Thursday unveiled its Market Access Program, an initiative to help startups overcome challenges in accessing global markets, as the tech giant also announced new additions to its Gemma open model family.

Google, last year, announced a record USD 15-billion investment that would go into building an AI infrastructure hub in Andhra Pradesh.

According to the company, the latest launches support its ongoing investments in India’s physical AI infrastructure, including the Global AI Hub in Visakhapatnam, which provides a 1-gigawatt foundation powered by green energy and the company’s advanced AI chips, to ensure Indian startups have access to high-performance compute.

Google said the Market Access Program, would help Indian startups strengthen their go-to-market efforts, shortening the journey from local pilots to global scale.

It also announced new additions to its Gemma open model family, tuned to help startups build population-scale and production-ready AI applications.

"MedGemma 1.5 addresses the growing demand for advanced healthcare AI, enabling startups to work with high-dimensional medical imaging at scale," the release said.

FunctionGemma, on the other hand, is a lightweight model optimised for function calling, and supports the next generation of on-device, agent-based systems, allowing AI applications to take secure, reliable action locally.

These models expand the building blocks available to developers creating real-world, deployable solutions.

On the Market Access Program, Google said the initiative is aimed at AI-first startups that have moved beyond the prototype phase and are ready to scale responsibly.

The program aims to support founders with transformative outcomes, including enterprise readiness through a specialised curriculum on global enterprise selling, complex pricing models, and international buyer psychology; and a global network via direct, facilitated introductions to relevant members of Google’s global network of CIOs and CXOs.

It also involves global immersion in partnership with ecosystem leaders like TiE Silicon Valley and Alteus, to establish in-person relationships in key buyer markets and international tech hubs, the company release said.

"Applications for the Google Market Access Program are now open for eligible startups," it added.

Speaking at the launch event, Preeti Lobana, Country Manager for India at Google pointed out that AI is moving out of research labs into classrooms, healthcare and hospitals, agriculture, factories, and all the way from small to large enterprises.

"AI startups are no longer experimenting at the edges, they are turning their capability into products that people use, trust and pay for. This is the point at which models turn into businesses," she said. PTI MBI MBI ANU ANU