Christopher Cytera
When Asia is mentioned in the context of semiconductors, the usual suspects dominate: Taiwan at the cutting edge, South Korea’s memory chip giants, Japan’s all-around capability, and China as the looming threat. But India? The subcontinent rarely registers.
That could be a mistake. With a massive population, deep engineering talent, and multi-billion-dollar government investments, India is building a dynamic semiconductor hub. Unlike China, India is not pursuing a goal of national self-sufficiency and independence from US and European technology. India does not want to replace existing chip hubs. Instead, it aims to complement them.
India enjoys deep semiconductor DNA. For decades, it excelled in chip design services and embedded software, contributing to a massive share of global engineering talent. But the country remained stuck downstream in the value chain. Unreliable utilities, a shortage of skilled chip talent, and missing links in the supply chain for chemicals hobbled efforts to build volume manufacturing.
It now sees an opportunity to try again. The COVID-19 pandemic produced massive chip shortages. Taiwan’s dominance at the leading edge looked dangerous. China’s massive push in basic chips raised alarm bells. In 2021, New Delhi budgeted $9 billion to launch a Semiconductor Mission aiming to move from “design and assembly” to full-spectrum production.
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