'We are busy building Bhujia companies while others are dominating in AI': Unacademy CEO Munjal

Unacademy and Airlearn CEO Gaurav Munjal has ignited a heated debate with a pointed observation on India’s lagging investments in AI compared to global trends.

“$465B investment in AI globally. Less than $1B in India,” Munjal wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “We are busy building Bhujia companies while others are dominating in AI.”

Munjal's remark highlighted Indian founders' continued focus on traditional consumer businesses over emerging technologies. In 2024, global private venture capital funding in AI startups stood at $131.5 billion, while the U.S. alone attracted $109.1 billion in private AI investments—almost 100 times India’s tally.

According to Stanford’s 2025 AI Index, China followed at $9.3 billion and the U.K. at $4.5 billion. Meanwhile, India ranked 12th globally with just $1.16 billion in private AI investment in 2024. Even cumulatively, from 2013 to 2024, India’s total private AI investment stood at $11.29 billion—still less than what the US invested in a single year.

Despite this, the Indian government is making efforts to close the gap. In March 2024, it approved a Rs 10,372 crore for the India AI Mission for five years. However, public funding alone is unlikely to bridge the vast gap without a similar surge in private capital and risk-taking by startups and investors.

Netizens reaction

Responding to his post, some users embraced the humour while others reflected on why India has lagged in high-tech innovation. 

“Well, if you look our history of technology, India’s tech boom was built on IT services (Infosys, TCS, Wipro) not product innovation. This somewhere created a generation of engineers skilled in execution, but not in deep product thinking or risk-taking. We became the world’s back office, not its innovation lab,” a user noted.

“We can hope that by 2036 we will arrive on AI as well!” another wrote.

"Yes, India is lagging in AI. There is no need to degrade some other industry, or business to acknowledge the lack of investment in AI industry," a third expressed.