India to beat US as Earth's top developer nucleus by 2027: GitHub CEO

India is all set to beat the United States as the biggest community of developers on Earth by 2027, while the right convergence of the community with AI could drive an “economic boom” in the country that would have a global impact, said GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, in Bengaluru to attend the 2024 GitHub Constellation, a developer conference on AI, security and collaboration.

“By 2027, India will overtake the United States as the largest software developer community on Earth. This alone signals incredible prosperity ahead but there’s more to it,” Dohmke stated, adding: “India’s developer population is booming and the age of AI has begun.”

Dohmke, whose platform GitHub lets developers create, store, manage and share codes, said the right convergence of the developers’ community with AI could drive an “economic boom” in India that would have a global impact. According to GitHub, India currently has more than 15.4 million developers, and the number is growing at an annual rate of 33 per cent.

“If enabled, this great convergence will generate a consequential economic boom in India that could be felt around the world for generations to come,” Dohmke said. “India will not just be a global leader but the global leader in the age of AI. Children and adults alike will learn to code in their native language leading to a prolonged groundswell of developers,” he added.

Dohmke believes the stage is set in India for AI start-ups to thrive and dictate the country's digital economy. “Indian businesses will carve a competitive advantage in the global market, as their developers build software with an accelerated speed of code,” he said.

A few days before his tour of the country, Dohmke shared on X a photo from a past visit to India and wrote: “Although this is my first visit as GitHub CEO in India, this is not my first time here. I love this country. This is me in 2008, in Bengaluru — I haven’t aged at all.”

“India is at the nexus of monumental economic opportunity, as it is set to become the world’s largest developer community at the exact point in time the age of AI is taking off. More from me on this soon,” he posted on X a few days ago.

“It’s not just how you will build with AI, it’s the AI innovation you will build right here in India. The next great AI startup will be as likely to come from Mumbai or Bengaluru as SF or Seattle,” he wrote in a subsequent post.

“India has always been known as a vivid tapestry of creative expression. But what I also know: there is still yet a sleeping tiger of Indian creativity waiting to be unleashed. Together, we will unleash it,” he added on X.