A strategic imperative has emerged for boardrooms confronting AI: if you cannot build it fast enough, acquire it, with acquirers paying for capability, not just revenue. AI dealmaking reshapes India compliance, as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act), 2023, has elevated training data legitimacy to a primary concern, requiring acquirers to examine data lineage, consent mechanisms, cross-border transfers and breach history. Representations and warranties can no longer be boilerplate; sellers must warrant DPDP Act compliance and data inventory accuracy, with indemnity carve-outs for pre-closing non-compliance likely to become sharply contested. Talent retention has driven the rise of acqui-hire structures, and in India, where non-competes have limited enforceability, acquirers rely on milestone-based earnouts, extended employee stock option plan (ESOP) vesting, and retention bonuses. Valuing AI deals is strained by traditional methods, as a startup with a curated dataset may generate negligible revenue while representing extraordinary strategic value. This is significant given the recently introduced threshold of the INR20 billion deal value under the Competition Act, 2002, as investments in AI companies with modest revenues may now trigger mandatory notification from the Competition Commission of India.