IT Minister Announces India’s First Commercially Made Chip to Debut by September-October

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Union Minister of Information Technology, has stated that the country’s first commercially made semiconductor chip will make its appearance in the autumn of this year, maybe in September or October.

At a news conference in Bengaluru, he made the announcement while highlighting important advances in the tech and semiconductor ecosystem of the country.

Leading India’s semiconductor fabrication efforts is Tata Electronics, in partnership with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) of Taiwan. In Dholera, Gujarat, the two are actively constructing India’s first chip-making plant, which will help the country move closer to its aim of becoming semiconductor manufacturing independent.

Government Investment in GaN Technology

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has received a grant of Rs 334 crore from the national government to support research and development in gallium nitride (GaN) technology. This is part of the government’s larger drive towards semiconductors. GaN’s effectiveness in high-power and high-frequency operations makes it an essential material for use in semiconductor applications, especially in power electronics and telecommunications.

According to Vaishnaw, GaN is strategically important, and India might lead the way in this specialized market. As per IISc, the material provides more affordable alternatives to foundries that rely on silicon. The faculty at IISc have created India’s first e-mode GaN power transistor, and it performs as well as top performance standards worldwide.

To further encourage domestic component manufacture, the minister also announced that a production-linked incentive (PLI) program will shortly be implemented.

People think that the plan will speed up investments and help companies that package chips and make parts.

IndiaAI Mission to Enhance AI Capabilities with GPUs

Vaishnaw said that within the next week, the IndiaAI Mission will launch a site just for graphics processing units (GPUs). This is a big step forward for India’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry. In order to train sophisticated machine learning models, AI researchers need access to powerful computers, and this project intends to give just that.

The government has empanelled 18,693 GPUs as part of the IndiaAI Mission. This includes 12,896 H100 GPUs, 1,480 H200 GPUs, and versions like MI 325 and MI 300x. With the help of these state-of-the-art processors, India will be able to strengthen its position as a world leader in artificial intelligence by bolstering its research and development of foundational models.

According to Vaishnaw, investments totaling Rs 13,162 crore have been made in India’s electronics manufacturing sector in the past few months, and there are more transactions on the way. He further emphasized that students from 234 different universities now have access to semiconductor design tools, which is helping to train the next generation of engineers to create cutting-edge chips.

These discoveries demonstrate India’s impressive progress in semiconductor and AI technologies, setting the stage for a strong digital infrastructure in the future.