Startups rethink cloud use as AI bills mount

Rising AI and compute-intensive workloads are pushing up cloud infrastructure costs for startups, with growth-stage firms now spending more than twice as much on cloud as they did two years ago, prompting companies to adopt tighter cost controls and explore alternatives to conventional cloud services.

A growth-stage startup with a reasonably scaled product that spent around Rs 8-20 lakh a month on cloud infrastructure two years ago now typically spends Rs 18-45 lakh, according to industry experts. For late-stage and enterprise-scale companies,