India has emerged as the world’s third most competitive country in artificial intelligence (AI). The ranking underscores how India’s fast-growing tech ecosystem and strong talent base are helping the country play a key role in the global AI race, a report said on Sunday.
According to Stanford University’s Global AI Vibrancy Tool report, India’s ranking increased because of the major initiatives undertaken to strengthen AI ecosystem.
“India ranks third in the 2024 Global Vibrancy Index (score of 21.59), followed by South Korea (17.24) and the United Kingdom (16.64). India made a notable leap from seventh place in 2023 to third, while the United Kingdom rose one spot from sixth to fifth. Both countries have recently renewed major initiatives to strengthen their positions in the global AI ecosystem,” the report highlighted.
The United States leads the ranking by a wide margin, with a total weighted score of 78.60, the report said adding that it tops nearly all pillars of the index, except for those measuring talent and public opinion. The country’s strength is especially concentrated in the research and development, economy, and infrastructure pillars.
“In 2024, the United States led in terms of producing notable AI models, attracting private investment, and total compute capacity. Many of the leading AI models released in 2024, such as Gemini 2.0 Pro, o1, and Llama 3.1, were developed by US-based companies including Google, OpenAI, and Meta,” it added.
China ranked second in the 2024 in the Index with a score of 36.95. Its strongest performance lies in the research and development (R&D) pillar, where it trails the United States only slightly.
“This is unsurprising given that China led the world in AI publications, citations, and patent grants in 2024, and ranked second in producing notable AI models. Chinese model launches such as Deepseek made headlines in early 2025, coinciding with the Chinese government’s unveiling of an ambitious new strategy to integrate AI across its economy,” it said.
Published on December 14, 2025
