After UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s post on announcing a Rs 25,000 crore MoU with homegrown startup Puch AI stirred a new controversy, the startup’s co-founder, Siddharth Bhatia, has issued a detailed clarification on the details of the MoU and all concerns regarding the company and its revenue details. In a detailed post on X (formerly Twitter), he admitted to being “quite exhausted” by the controversy.
Bhatia addressed key concerns regarding public funds, the company’s financials, technology, and the overall intent of the agreement. The clarification comes after the UP CM also issued a clarification on the MoU details and how the deal hasn’t been finalised yet.
In addressing the controversy, Bhatia stated, “It is a very interesting situation, where the Government understands the importance and wants to do good, but it becomes difficult to do any good when so many bad actors are rooting for you to fail. Thousands of paid accounts are ready to try to shape narratives to fit their own political agenda. Everything from Community Notes to actual news articles and journalism gets weaponised against you, because your failure gets more views.”
No taxpayer money involved, says Puch AI co-founder
Bhatia clarified that the MoU is structured as a public-private partnership aimed at attracting external investment into Uttar Pradesh, with zero cost to taxpayers.
“The MoU signed with the UP Government is structured as a public-private partnership. It does not involve any cost to taxpayers in Uttar Pradesh. On the contrary, it brings investment into the state. The project will be executed in phases, with support from external investment partners. We have not taken any money, GPUs, or any other form of support from the Government,” he wrote.
He also added that the only component directly involving citizens is providing free access to AI in their own language through familiar interfaces via AI Commons.
Bhatia also corrected widespread misinformation about Puch AI’s financials. He revealed that the widely circulating figure of Rs 42.9 lakh in revenue actually belongs to a different company called Pucho AI, and the misinformation was attributed to a bug in Google’s AI.
“This is a bug in Google’s AI, which has confused Puch AI with another company called Pucho AI. The Rs 42.9 lakh revenue figure belongs to Pucho AI, not Puch AI. Puch AI’s revenue is not public,” he stated, adding that the startup is “well-funded” and not bootstrapped.
“We’ll share those details when the time is right. For now, as a private company, we’re not required to make our valuation or revenue public. But, if you’re curious, we’re not bootstrapped. We’re a well-funded startup,” he added.
He also clarified that Puch AI doesn’t have a foundation model yet, and they don’t find it necessary to build one at this early stage. The company doesn’t want to build a standalone app either and wants to focus on offering access to its AI services for free via WhatsApp and other publicly available interfaces.
On concerns addressing the non-availability of the WhatsApp chatbot, Bhatia stated that the startup is “fighting Meta over the new WhatsApp policy” that prevents any AI chatbot from operating on the app.
UP government’s stand on the matter
The Uttar Pradesh government has also downplayed the MoU’s significance. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stated that such agreements are non-binding and only serve as a preliminary step, subject to detailed evaluation and due diligence before any final approval.
The controversy erupted after the UP government announced a massive MoU, with critics questioning the scale of the deal. This was given considering Puch AI’s relatively small size, limited/no public disclosures, and no prior experience made public to make it happen.