India building domestic capabilities from chip design to indigenous AI models

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) In the fast-evolving AI era, India is building domestic capabilities across the semiconductor value chain, from chip design and fabrication to advanced packaging, equipment and materials, and seven chips have been successfully fabricated at various nodes including advanced nodes such as 12 nm, according to an official factsheet.

India has approved 12 semiconductor projects across six states, with investments commitments exceeding Rs 1.64 lakh crore. Projects span silicon and compound semiconductor fabs, display fabrication and advanced packaging facilities.

Three facilities have already commenced commercial production, marking India’s transition from semiconductor policy to manufacturing, said the government factsheet.

Notably, 211 chips were taped out by 75 institutions by April 2026, demonstrating growing domestic design capabilities.

Semicon 2.0 is scaling this foundation into global ecosystem leadership, with a Rs 1,27,500 crore outlay approved in July 2026.

“Semicon 2.0 will further intended to support semiconductor IP, chip and system designs, strengthening India’s position as a global semiconductor design hub. By strengthening domestic capabilities today, India is positioning itself to shape the technologies of tomorrow,” said the statement.

Semiconductors are the foundation of modern technology, powering everything from smartphones and vehicles to satellites and AI systems.

AI is now accelerating the demand for advanced chips, specialised processors and high-performance computing, making the two technologies increasingly inseparable. Recognising this convergence,

India is building capabilities from chip design and fabrication to computing infrastructure and indigenous AI models, said the statement.

Meanwhile, the IndiaAI Mission, approved with an outlay of about Rs 10,372 crore, has made significant strides over the past year.

The IndiaAI Mission has expanded shared compute capacity to more than 45,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), as of June 2026.

By August 2026, 237 projects had accessed subsidised AI computing, covering 93.18 lakh GPU hours.

This provides affordable high-performance computing for AI model development, training, testing and research, lowering entry barriers for Indian researchers, start-ups and innovators, according to the statement.

—IANS

na/