India to Develop AI Chip from Scratch

New Delhi is embarking on an ambitious journey to create its own artificial intelligence ecosystem. This initiative is primarily aimed at decreasing the country's reliance on Western technology companies that currently dominate the AI chip market.

According to recent reports, India has taken a significant first step in this direction by planning to design its own AI chip from the ground up. The country's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is collaborating with state-owned IT and advanced computing centers, including the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), to spearhead this effort. The project will utilize C-DAC's expertise to create processors based on the open-source 'Risc-V' core architecture. This architecture features openly accessible standards that can be adopted by various manufacturers, similar to how the Android system functions for smartphone producers.

For many years, the United States has remained a leader in AI technology, with companies like Nvidia supplying the chips that power popular AI applications, such as ChatGPT. However, India is now taking steps to change this narrative by developing its own AI capabilities, with work on the framework already in progress. Government officials indicate that New Delhi has set a timeline for the production of these chips by 2027. Experts from major tech firms in the United States, as well as advisors from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), are reportedly assisting Meity in this venture.

This move to create a proprietary AI chip is part of a larger global trend emphasizing the development of indigenous technologies. The semiconductor industry is currently dominated by companies in the United States, accounting for roughly 70% of global revenues, according to Gartner, a research firm. Furthermore, recent U.S. regulations have limited the export of AI chips, tightening restrictions for prominent firms like Nvidia, aimed at hindering technological advances in rival nations such as China.

In light of these developments, both India and China have announced their plans to advance AI initiatives. Earlier this year, the Indian government approved 18 proposals designed to expedite AI solutions in crucial areas, including agriculture and climate change. This initiative forms a vital component of the $1.2 billion IndiaAI mission, which seeks to further develop both large and small language models.

Meanwhile, China has recently unveiled its own AI assistant named DeepSeek, which has garnered significant attention in the tech industry, drawing favorable comparisons to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. DeepSeek has already overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular AI assistant on Apple’s App Store.

India, AI, Chip