India, Nov. 14 -- Jensen Huang's exit from NVIDIA has put the spotlight on the company's leadership and succession plans. But for India, the more consequential question is what happens to an ecosystem that has increasingly come to depend on the American chipmaker for its AI ambitions.

From data centre operators ordering thousands of GPUs to startups building on its software stack, NVIDIA has established relationships across almost every layer of India's AI industry. Its influence extends beyond hardware procurement to cloud infrastructure, developer tools, technical partnerships, startup incubation and even equity investments. It is also helping Indian companies access global investors and customers.

The scale of this presence is visibl...