By Abhirami G and Akash Sriram

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google and venture capital firm Accel will partner to fund at least 10 early-stage Indian AI startups, marking the U.S. technology giant’s first such funding partnership, top executives at the companies said on Thursday.

The move comes as several U.S. tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon and OpenAI make a beeline for the world’s most populous nation, seen as a critical growth market where nearly a billion users access the internet.

Under the partnership, Google’s AI Futures Fund and Accel will co-invest up to $2 million in each startup, Prayank Swaroop, partner at Accel, told Reuters in an interview, with the investments focussed on the wide areas of entertainment, creativity, work and coding.

The announcement comes after Goog

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