VIJAYAWADA: On the third day of his US tour, HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh held a series of meetings with technology leaders, venture capitalists, and creative industry executives in San Francisco, positioning the State as a prime destination for advanced research, manufacturing, and digital innovation.
Lokesh urged Celesta VC managing partner Arun Kumar to establish a Deep Tech Innovation Hub in Andhra Pradesh, targeting investments in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. He also met Creative Land Asia founder Sajan Raj Kurup, seeking an early rollout of the Creator Land Project in Amaravati, projected to attract Rs 10,000 crore in investments and generate nearly 1.5 lakh jobs.
At a discussion with OpsRamp CEO Varma Koonapuneeni, Lokesh requested support for strengthening IT infrastructure, AI-Ops training, and scalable SaaS models to benefit startups and SMEs. He invited Autodesk Chief Technologist Dev Patel to set up a Design and Innovation Academy in Amaravati and collaborate on BIM-based digital twin technologies and cyclone-resilient building systems.
Briefing Consul General of India in San Francisco Srikar Reddy, Lokesh highlighted investor-friendly policies that have mobilised over Rs 20 lakh crore in 18 months, seeking support to attract further US investments. He also urged Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry to establish a Cybersecurity R&D Centre in Visakhapatnam.
He proposed a Global Capability Centre and R&D hub to Salesforce EVP Ramesh Ragineni and invited Rigetti Computing CTO David Rivas to join the Quantum Computing Research Wing in Amaravati’s upcoming Quantum Valley.
He encouraged Ohmium CTO Chockalingam Karuppaiah to invest in electrolyzer manufacturing and green hydrogen projects and sought Canva’s support for skill development under Creator Land. In discussions with AMD SVP Vamsi Boppana, he proposed electronics assembly, testing and packaging units, and invited OpenAI CTO Srinivas Narayanan to help establish an AI University and consider AP for future data centres.