Bharat forge 🤖
Gemini spices it up, Ola wins, and Tesla comes to India.
☀️ Morning, folks! Friday is here, but probably a rough one if you’ve checked your portfolio this week.
There is some respite in the Indian markets though. Sensex and Nifty added nearly 1% on Thursday after the RBI injected nearly $21 billion in liquidity.
Back in the U.S., Donald’s tariff dance has sent shockwaves through the markets, crashing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Things aren’t as bad considering how good the market was doing, but the Nasdaq is already down 10% from previous highs.
But guess who’s winning? Europe. European stocks, long ignored, are off to the races as the region approved hundreds of billions in defense and infrastructure spend recently.
Let’s hit it.
1 Big Thing: Bharat Forge to make chips in India 🤖
Kalyani Powertrain, a subsidiary of Bharat Forge, has teamed up with Taiwanese manufacturing-giant Compal to produce CPUs in India, primarily for data centers.
Some context: Bharat Forge may not be a household name for Gen Z, but it holds a strong position in key industries such as defense, automotive components, industrial components, electronics, and more.
Particularly, the company’s India-made artillery cannons have received significant attention.
Regardless, the company is big on make in India. And jumping into the semiconductor revolution isn’t out of character.
The deets: as part of the partnership, a new manufacturing facility will be established in India. Bharat Forge will manage operations, while Compal will provide technological expertise, overseeing production, assembly, and testing.
Worth noting: X86 is a widely used CPU architecture found in everything from laptops to data center servers. Intel currently dominates nearly 60% of this market, followed by AMD.
Zoom out: India’s data center market is projected to be worth over $9 billion by 2025. This move could position Bharat Forge as a key supplier to that ecosystem.
2. Gemini is spicing it up 🌶️
Gemini Edibles & Fats India, the sunflower oil maker, has acquired a 70% stake in Sree Annapoorna Foods.
Worth noting: Gemini Edibles, a subsidiary of Golden Agri-Resources, has long focused on edible oils and specialty fats. Now, with Sree Annapoorna Foods, the company is expanding into packaged spices and convenience food, strengthening its FMCG presence.
Sree Annapoorna’s expectations,
📌 First-year revenue target – ₹100 crore
📌 5-year projection – ₹1,000 crore revenue
Why it matters: the acquisition helps GEF India scale its food manufacturing and distribution, tapping into the rising demand for home-cooked meal solutions.
Big Picture: South India’s spices market is expected to hit ₹96,500 crore by 2032, driven by growing demand for convenience and packaged foods.
3. Around the world in tech 🌎
ChaGPT now gets 400 million weekly active users, more than doubling in less than six months, cementing the platform’s leadership despite competitive challenges.
The launch of the O-1 model and reasoning capabilities was particularly critical is driving the final lap of growth.
To put things into perspective, it took Google nearly 5 years to reach 400 million users, a feat ChatGPT has managed to achieve in half the time.
While we’re on western tech,
AI labeling startup Scale AI, founded by one of the youngest AI billionaires Alex Wang, is being investigated for labor abuse.
For context, Scale provides labeling solutions, using human workers—mainly in Southeast Asia and Africa—to tag images for AI training. In other words, telling the AI a car is a car and the tree is a tree. This helps models recognize objects better.
The company is nearing a billion dollars in revenue.
4. Who got the bag?💰
Truemeds, telehealth platform is raising ₹375 crore in its Series C, led by Accel India. WestBridge and Info Edge are also investing in the round.
The deets: Truemeds helps consumers find alternate-brand medicines by analyzing prescriptions they upload.
The company doubled its revenue to ₹315 crore in FY24.
With this round, Accel India now owns nearly 10%, while WestBridge and Info Edge hold 29% and 23%, respectively. The fresh capital will be used to expand operations and drive growth.
Turning to enterprise IT…
Entrackr reports that Beacon.li, a support-management platform, raised ₹60.9 crore in its Series A, led by Sorin Investments.
The company provides AI agents that are capable of handling customer support requests. Global expansion and new products are on the cards.
5. Big Daily Movers 🚀
1. Zydus Life popped 2% after receiving approval from the USFDA to manufacture tablets that are used to treat early stages of a particular type of blood cancer.
The tablets, called Dasatinib, works by inhibiting proteins that promote cancer cell growth, helping control disease progression.
The drugs will be produced at Zydus Lifesciences’ Ahmedabad unit.
The company’s stock which has had a pretty solid run up over the last 5 years, has mostly struggled for the past year, despite robust growth in fundamentals.
6. Story in data: Data center boom 📡
India is emerging as the second-fastest-growing data center market in Asia-Pacific, with a 28% increase in capacity.
The cost of constructing a data center in India stands at $6.7 million per MW—cheaper than China, Malaysia, and South Korea but still higher than markets like the Philippines and Taiwan.
As demand for cloud services, AI, and digital infrastructure soars, the country is gearing up for a major data infrastructure expansion.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🚀 Boost for PSLV: L&T, in partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics, is assembling India’s first privately made Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
🛢️ Oil slump: Brent Crude dropped below $70/bbl, hitting a 3-year low as global market pressures weighed on prices.
🚗 Tesla touchdown: Elon Musk’s Tesla has locked in its first India showroom at Mumbai’s BKC.
🎬 Merger blues: JioStar to lay off 1,100 employees as it streamlines roles post Disney merger.
⚡ Ola’s big win: Ola became the first 2W EV manufacturer to bag PLI incentives.
🛍️ Shutdown: Amazon is shutting down its refurbished platform, Renewed, citing increasing challenges.
And that’s a wrap. Pour yourself an extra one this weekend.
We’ll be back like clockwork on Monday!
Hit that 💚 if you liked this issue.
