Current AI raises $400M to build open AI in 22 Indian languages

Key Takeaways

• Current AI launched Suno Sutra, an offline device running AI in 22 Indian languages without internet
• The nonprofit has secured $400 million from France, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce
• First grant round deployed $3.2 million to projects in Kenya, Lebanon, and the Brazilian Amazon

A nonprofit called Current AI is building what it calls a public alternative to OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Its first product: a pocket-sized, offline device that runs AI in 22 Indian languages. The organization has raised $400 million in committed funding from the French government, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce.

The device, called Suno Sutra (Hindi for "listening chronicles"), emerged from a February partnership with Bhashini, the Indian government's AI language division, announced at the India AI Summit. It works offline. No internet connection required. The hardware is open-source, available for developers to build on.

"In India, there are hundreds of different languages and dialects, and right now AI is not representing them," Current AI CEO Ayah Bdeir told TechCrunch.

Who's behind Current AI?

Martin Tisne founded Current AI in February 2025. Bdeir joined as CEO in January after leading Mozilla's AI strategy. Before Mozilla, she founded littleBits, the STEM education company that reached millions of kids before Sphero acquired it in 2019.

The French government seeded the organization with $100 million. Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce followed, bringing total committed funding to $400 million. Bdeir emphasizes a distinction: "They're not investors; they're funders."

Current AI operates as a public-private partnership, connecting governments, companies, and philanthropies to fund public interest AI. The core argument is simple: every major AI system today belongs to a private company. Bdeir wants a public alternative.

“If AI is truly a transformative technology, if it's going to change every aspect of everyone's life, there has to be a public alternative. Like the World Wide Web, available to anyone, for free.”

— Ayah Bdeir, CEO of Current AI

Why focus on language?

Half the world's spoken languages face extinction. English dominates the largest language models, which means billions of people get left behind. India alone has 1.4 billion people, but only about 10% speak English fluently. The remaining 780 million have limited access to AI tools.

Bdeir draws a sharp line between Current AI's approach and Big Tech's multilingual efforts. "Big tech builds multilingual models to expand their market, regardless of consent or context," she said. The consequences are concrete: "For Indigenous languages, missionary Bible translations become training data before communities have set any rules."

But language alone isn't enough. "Language is how knowledge, tradition, memory and identity get carried from one generation to the next," Bdeir said. "So when a technology can't speak your language, it can't hold your culture either."

Where is the $3.2 million going?

Last month, Current AI announced its first cohort of grants: $3.2 million split across four organizations in Kenya, Lebanon, and the Brazilian Amazon.

• Masakhane (Kenya): Building AI datasets across more than 50 African languages for health, farming, and education
• Institute for Worldmaking (Lebanon): Digitizing Arab cultural history into machine-readable databases that communities control
• Portal sem Porteiras (Brazil): Building offline AI tools with Indigenous Amazon communities, keeping data within their territory
• African Internet Rights Alliance (Kenya): Developing audit tools to hold AI systems accountable across the continent

Last week, Current AI launched an open-source AI chatbot at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva. The pace is deliberate. Bdeir says the organization is moving fast because the window to establish public AI infrastructure is closing.

Who owns the data?

Bdeir didn't hedge on data ownership. "There are different models and proposals for who owns data in various communities, but one thing is sure: it shouldn't be a company in Silicon Valley trying to make a select few thousand people wealthier."

Current AI's approach involves storing models and data locally, bringing in community experts before anything is built, and writing consent protocols into the pipeline so communities can halt the process at any point. None of the grantees have fully solved data sovereignty yet. Bdeir sees that as the point.

"Every one of them has built the question into their work," she said, "rather than accepting the usual default, where complexity becomes the excuse to let a government or a tech company decide for everyone."

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Suno Sutra?

Suno Sutra is a pocket-sized, offline device developed by Current AI in partnership with India's Bhashini. It runs AI in 22 Indian languages without requiring an internet connection. The hardware design is open-source.

Who funds Current AI?

Current AI has $400 million in committed funding from the French government ($100M seed), Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, DeepMind, and Salesforce. These are grants, not equity investments.

How is Current AI different from Big Tech's multilingual AI?

Current AI stores data locally, requires community consent before building, and releases models as open source. Big Tech companies train on publicly available data without community input and retain proprietary control.

Which languages does Suno Sutra support?

Suno Sutra supports 22 Indian languages, corresponding to the scheduled languages recognized in India's Constitution. Specific language list was not disclosed in the announcement.

Can developers build on Suno Sutra?

Yes. The device is open-source, and Current AI has made it available for developer communities to extend and customize.

Source: TechCrunch / Kate Park