Every time Prof. Dr. Sashikumaar Ganesan observed engineers running thousands of simulations to design motors or batteries, he noticed a recurring problem: enormous computing resources were spent, but the results were rarely reused. That inefficiency became the seed for Zenteiq.ai, a startup developing AI models that learn from past simulations to predict engineering outcomes with greater accuracy.
IndiaAI Mission Backing
Founded in 2022, Zeinteiq.ai is one of only eight startups selected by the Government of India to build a sovereign foundational AI model under the IndiaAI Mission. The company will receive ₹75 crore in its first year, primarily for compute resources, with training of an 8-billion parameter model scheduled within 12 months. The government is also supporting GPU access through advanced clusters powered by NVIDIA H100S and H200S.
From Academia to Industry
Dr. Ganesan, also a professor at IISc and head of the AiREX Lab, brings deep expertise in Scientific Machine Learning (SciML), AI, and high-performance computing. Initially focused on higher education, the startup pivoted to solving industrial R&D challenges in thermal analysis, impacting fields such as chip design, batteries, aerospace, and electric vehicles.
Industry Traction and Growth
Zeinteiq has already completed proof-of-concepts with global firms in motor design and thermal analysis. It has secured $200,000 in TPU credits from Google Cloud and is in discussions with investors for future funding. The 15-member team is set to grow to 50 specialists, spanning transformer architectures, CFD, electromagnetics, and noise-vibration modelling.
Final Take
By treating science as a language, Zeinteiq.ai is carving out a niche distinct from general-purpose LLMs. With government support, academic credibility, and industry traction, it is positioning itself as a pioneer in AI-driven engineering research.
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