Google for Startups (AI First Cohort - 2026)

Google's 10-week accelerator provides cloud credits and a cash grant for AI/ML startups, with a specific cohort for India. Google announced its 2026 AI First cohort for India as the accelerator's 10th anniversary batch, selecting 20 AI-first startups from a competitive applicant pool to receive technical mentorship, product guidance, cloud infrastructure, and go-to-market support over the program. Participating startups can also apply separately for Cloud TPU access to accelerate machine-learning research, on top of the cash and credit package referenced in this listing's funding text. Selection specifically favors teams building core AI applications or agentic AI systems on Google's stack, rather than startups merely using AI tooling incidentally.