Google launches Market Access Program and new Gemma AI models to help Indian AI startups scale globally

Google introduced its Market Access Program on Thursday, a new initiative to help Indian startups overcome challenges to entering global markets, while also announcing additions to its Gemma open model family. This comes against the backdrop of Google’s record USD 15-billion investment announcement last year to build an AI infrastructure hub in Andhra Pradesh.

The tech giant claims that the latest launches reinforce its continued investments in India’s physical AI infrastructure, including the Global AI Hub in Visakhapatnam.

The facility offers a 1-gigawatt foundation powered by green energy and Google’s advanced AI chips, for Indian startups to gain access to high-performance computing resources.

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What is Google's Market Access Program?

The company stated that its Market Access Program would help Indian startups strengthen their go-to-market strategies and reduce the timespan from local pilots to global scale.

Google also rolled out new additions to its Gemma open model family, which are tuned to support startups in building population-scale, 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.

"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, shared that AI is fast-moving beyond research labs into classrooms, healthcare and hospitals, agriculture, factories, and enterprises of all sizes.

"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.

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