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Manu Kumar Jain
Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm G42 has appointed former Xiaomi India CEO Manu Kumar Jain as its India CEO. The development comes amid the Abu Dhabi-based AI firm is expanding its presence in the Indian market.
Announcing the development, Manu Kumar Jain, in a LinkedIn post, wrote, "I am delighted to announce that I am joining G42, a leading global AI company, to kickstart a new AI business in India! 🌍 Together, we will innovate, disrupt, and drive forward the frontiers of artificial intelligence."
Manu further emphasised the power of AI that is transforming businesses and industries. "here is a great opportunity to harness this power and make a significant impact on India's tech landscape," Manu added.
How will Manu Jain help G42 in its Indian expansion?
“We are thrilled to share that we will be soon expanding our operations into India, as we continue our journey towards becoming a global leader in AI. Leading us into this new chapter of G42’s growth story is Manu Kumar Jain, a name synonymous with transformative leadership and ground-breaking success in the consumer technology sector," G42 posted on its social media handles.
We are thrilled to share that we will be soon expanding our operations into #India, as we continue our journey towards becoming a global leader in #AI. pic.twitter.com/qky00aZEZq
— G42 (@G42ai) October 9, 2023
Manu Kumar Jain said that he will spearhead the expansion of G42 in India, exploring partnership opportunities to enhance its AI-centric ecosystem and bolster the burgeoning AI ecosystem within the country.
What does G42 do?
Abu Dhabi-based G42 is an artificial intelligence (AI) focused company that is oriented to the development of AI industries in the government sector, healthcare, finance, oil and gas, aviation, and hospitality.
Founded in 2018, The company performs fundamental AI research and development processes on big data, AI, and machine learning via its subsidiary the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI).
According to a Reuters report, it raised over $800 million in funding from U.S. tech investment firm Silver Lake, which has backing from Mudabala, the UAE's sovereign wealth fund.
In August 2023, Inception, a subsidiary of G42, announced the open-source release of Jais, a substantial Arabic large language model (LLM).
According to the company, The model, developed in collaboration with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and Cerebras Systems, has 13 billion parameters and was trained on a dataset comprising 395 billion tokens in both Arabic and English.
Manu's role in Xiaomi India
Manu Kumar Jain, who is the co-founder of Jabong, first joined Xiaomi India in May 2014 as its CEO of India operations and was later elevated to the role of CEO of Xiaomi's South Asia operations. In January 2017, He was appointed as Global Vice President.
In January of this year, Manu Jain announced his departure from Xiaomi India, following several months at the heart of investigations that have embroiled the company. Jain was reportedly interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate during its investigation into Xiaomi's alleged violation of foreign exchange rules.
Xiaomi, contesting a seizure order by the Enforcement Directorate, claimed that top executives, including Jain, were subjected to threats of physical violence and coercion during the agency's questioning.
After Jain stepped down from operations in India, Xiaomi India witnessed a series of leadership exits. The company's Chief Business Officer, Raghu Reddy, resigned in December 2022, followed by the General Manager of Marketing, Sumit Sonal, in January 2023. Additionally, Sunil Baby, the company’s director of offline sales, resigned in May 2022 to join Unacademy.
Manu's role in making Xiaomi as India's top brand
It's noteworthy that under Manu's leadership, Xiaomi has held the position of the top smartphone brand in India since 2017, benefiting from investments from the Tata Group.
Additionally, the company has acted as a catalyst for the "Make in India" initiative, with 100% of its smartphones and TVs being manufactured locally.
"We started as a one-person startup, working from a small little office. We were the smallest amongst the hundreds of smartphone brands, that too with limited resources and no prior relevant industry experience. But due to the efforts of a fantastic team, we were able to build one of the most loved brands in the country,” Jain had written in a farewell post.
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