India plays an integral role in designing semiconductors used in smartphones, Artificial Intelligence, automotive software and industrial applications, but most of the country’s ecosystem remains rooted in design rather than fabrication. In 2021 the government launched the India Semiconductor Mission to incentivize chip manufacturing, and the country’s industry is projected to reach a multibillion-dollar value by 2030. As demand for chips heats up, policy and private investment are driving a shift from design services toward more assembly, test and fabrication capacity.
Global firms have expanded research, design and manufacturing activity across India. Intel operates design facilities in Hyderabad and Bangalore and employs more than 13,000 people in the country. Nvidia has engineering development centers in Gurugram, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore and more than 3,800 employees in India. AMD employs about 6,500 people across multiple locations and is opening a large design center in Bangalore that the company expects to staff with some 3,000 engineers. Micron employs over 4,000 people at its Indian research and development sites and has broken ground on a phased assembly and test facility in Gujarat expected to create thousands of jobs. Other multinationals with major India operations include broadcom, qualcomm, samsung semiconductor, applied materials, nxp and marvell, many of which have invested in local engineering centers, packaging or partnerships with Indian companies.
Domestic and India-headquartered firms are also shaping the ecosystem. Tata group is establishing a semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat in partnership with powerchip, and tata electronics and bharat electronics signed a memorandum to explore semiconductor solutions for domestic supply. Companies such as spel semiconductor provide local assembly and test services, while saankhya labs has been described as one of the country’s first fabless chip designers. Service and design firms such as wipro, hcltech and sankalp semiconductor support design, verification and equipment engineering, and cdil operates packaging and test plants with high annual capacity. Together, these players form the foundation for India’s planned move up the semiconductor value chain from design toward manufacturing and assembly.
