News Details

Valuations ought to be in line with what businesses are producing.
  • Nisha
  • December 09, 2025

Valuations ought to be in line with what businesses are producing.

AI Startup Valuations ‘Unsustainable’, Warns Nutanix & Cohesity Founder Mohit Aron

Indian-origin tech entrepreneur Mohit Aron, the founder of billion-dollar companies Nutanix and Cohesity, has warned that today’s AI startup valuations have entered an “unsustainable zone.”

Speaking to ET from the office of his new stealth-mode startup SciFin in San Jose, Aron said that too much money is chasing AI companies without real fundamentals.

“People are raising money on nothing”

Aron said the hype cycle has created circular funding loops where one company’s inflated valuation automatically pushes up others, as investors rush to avoid missing out.

“Much of this stuff is probably going to go bust. VCs are going to lose a whole lot of money,”
he cautioned.

Advice to Investors

Aron urged investors to focus on:

  • Companies solving real problems

  • Valuations based on actual performance

  • Avoiding hype-driven investments

India still behind in deep-tech innovation

Although India has strong talent, Aron said the country still lacks deep-tech companies doing cutting-edge AI work.

He pointed out:

  • India’s big firms are mostly e-commerce or delivery companies, not tech innovators

  • Academic institutions lack funding for proper research

  • Professors struggle to attend global conferences

He said India needs a complete overhaul of its research and industry ecosystem.

Align national and personal interest

According to Aron, real progress will happen when:

“National interest and personal interest are aligned. That’s when magic happens.”

His innovation journey

  • Nutanix (2009): Introduced hyperconvergence, keeping compute and storage close to avoid network bottlenecks.

  • Cohesity (2013): Organized secondary data like backups, archives, and ransomware scans.

  • SciFin (current): Still secret, working on modernizing sales technology.

H-1B Visa Concern

Aron criticized the proposed $100,000 H-1B filing fee, saying it will discourage skilled young workers from applying, even though the old system also had flaws.