Bhumika Chauhan
As artificial intelligence becomes the backbone of modern economies, nations across the world are racing to secure control over the infrastructure that powers it. For India, the challenge is not simply adopting AI technologies, but ensuring that innovation is driven from within its own ecosystem. Alok Kumar, Founder and CEO of Thore Network Pvt Ltd, has positioned himself at the intersection of technology, policy, and national capability, working toward a future where India builds, owns, and governs its AI infrastructure.
Alok Kumar’s entrepreneurial journey began with observation rather than opportunity. Coming from a modest background, he witnessed how access to technology often dictated access to progress. While global corporations and advanced economies were investing heavily in AI compute infrastructure, Indian innovators faced structural limitations—high costs, limited GPU availability, and dependency on foreign platforms. This imbalance sparked a fundamental question: how could India become an AI leader without owning the systems that power intelligence itself?
Founded in 2018, Thore Network emerged as a response to this challenge. Headquartered in Kolkata, the company was envisioned not as a product-driven startup, but as an infrastructure-first organisation designed to support long-term national objectives. Its core mission is clear—democratise access to AI compute, enable indigenous language intelligence, and reduce India’s reliance on external AI ecosystems.
At the heart of Thore Network’s work lies its Government-aligned GPU Voucher Marketplace. AI innovation demands massive computational power, yet access to GPUs remains prohibitively expensive for most startups, researchers, and small enterprises. Thore Network addresses this gap by creating a structured marketplace that enables affordable and policy-aligned access to compute resources. This initiative has the potential to level the playing field, allowing innovation to emerge from talent rather than capital.
Beyond compute infrastructure, Thore Network is actively building platforms that translate AI capability into societal impact. Its multilingual Indic AI initiative, BhashaSetu, focuses on enabling AI systems that understand and operate across India’s diverse linguistic landscape. By prioritising regional languages, the platform ensures that AI adoption remains inclusive, reaching communities often excluded from English-centric digital systems. Complementing this are platforms like MaargAI, which applies intelligence to road safety and mobility, and Insights.ai, a knowledge discovery engine designed to make data-driven insights accessible across sectors.
What differentiates Thore Network is its deep integration with India’s policy and innovation frameworks. The organisation actively contributes to national initiatives such as IndiaAI, AI Kosh, AIGR, PRIP Pharma-MedTech, and NCIIPC. This alignment reflects Alok Kumar’s belief that AI infrastructure must be built responsibly, with national security, governance, and scalability in mind. Rather than operating in isolation, Thore Network positions itself as a collaborative partner in India’s AI ecosystem.
The path to building such an organisation was far from smooth. Alok Kumar navigated the challenges of limited funding, regulatory complexity, and the rapid pace of technological change. Without institutional backing in the early years, every decision required precision. These constraints shaped his leadership philosophy—prioritise execution, remain asset-light, and focus relentlessly on outcomes. For him, innovation is not about visibility, but about utility.
Recognition followed sustained effort. Alok Kumar has received honours including the National Icon Award 2024 and Entrepreneur of the Year (Tech & AI) 2025 at the regional level. Yet he remains clear that accolades are milestones, not destinations. Impact, in his view, is measured by how many innovators gain access to compute, how many Indian languages are empowered through AI, and how effectively India reduces technological dependency.
Looking ahead, Thore Network is preparing for its next phase of growth, with ambitions to scale infrastructure nationwide and move toward IPO readiness by 2026–27. The roadmap includes expanding compute capacity, strengthening Indic AI capabilities, and building platforms capable of serving over a billion users. It is a vision rooted not in speculation, but in systematic preparation.
Through Thore Network, Alok Kumar is helping redefine India’s relationship with artificial intelligence—from consumption to creation. His work underscores a powerful idea: true digital sovereignty is built not through applications alone, but through the infrastructure that enables intelligence itself.
