INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: U.S. Positions India as Key AI Strategic Partner Under TRUST Initiative
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The TRUST initiative does not negotiate terms; it assumes them. India’s adoption of U.S.-centric AI infrastructure may accelerate service delivery, but it also embeds governance choices beyond its control.
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: U.S. Positions India as Key AI Strategic Partner Under TRUST Initiative
Executive Summary:
The United States is actively advancing India as a core strategic partner in artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains through the TRUST initiative, announced during PM Modi’s 2025 U.S. visit. Senior White House AI Advisor Sriram Krishnan emphasized that India should leverage U.S.-led innovation—dominated by companies like Nvidia, Google, and OpenAI—to build citizen-focused AI tools in education and healthcare. A joint U.S.-India roadmap on AI infrastructure is expected by end-2025, underpinning efforts to secure resilient supply chains for critical technologies. The U.S. AI Action Plan prioritizes innovation, infrastructure, and global diplomacy, positioning America as the indispensable AI ally.
Primary Indicators:
- U.S. leads global AI investment and hardware development, particularly in GPUs and TPUs
- India encouraged to adopt U.S. AI models to enhance public services
- TRUST initiative formalizes U.S.-India tech collaboration across defense, AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology
- Joint roadmap on AI infrastructure to be delivered by end-2025 with private sector involvement
- Focus on building trusted supply chains for semiconductors, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals
Recommended Actions:
- Accelerate domestic AI deployment in education and healthcare using U.S. models and frameworks
- Engage private sector and academia in shaping the U.S.-India AI Infrastructure Roadmap
- Strengthen energy and data center infrastructure to support AI workloads
- Establish safeguards for technology transfer and data sovereignty in joint ventures
- Monitor U.S. regulatory developments on AI to align policy frameworks
Risk Assessment:
While the U.S. offers unparalleled AI innovation, overreliance on American technology stacks—especially proprietary models and GPU hardware—could entrench strategic dependency and limit India’s long-term autonomy in critical decision systems. The TRUST initiative, though promising, may prioritize U.S. commercial and geopolitical interests under the guise of partnership, potentially marginalizing indigenous AI development. Without parallel investment in domestic semiconductor capacity and open-source AI ecosystems, India risks becoming a consumer rather than a co-architect of the global AI order. The silence on data governance and ethical boundaries in joint deployments suggests latent vulnerabilities in citizen privacy and algorithmic accountability—issues that may only surface when crises emerge. This alliance is not merely technological; it is a recalibration of power, and the terms of engagement must be watched with quiet vigilance.
—Sir Edward Pemberton
Published February 23, 2026