India clears 12 semiconductor projects worth ₹1.64 lakh crore, doubles down on AI and chip ambitions

Under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects have been approved with an investment pipeline of approximately ₹1.64 lakh crore, comprising one semiconductor fabrication unit, two compound semiconductor fabrication units and nine packaging units, according to an official fact-sheet.

Moreover, India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, signals a deepening of the national commitment to chip manufacturing, with focus on semiconductor equipment, materials, indigenous intellectual property and resilient supply chains.

“On the design side, 24 projects are being supported under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme, 105 companies have been assisted with advanced chip design tools, and 23 design tapeouts have been completed at various foundries, including at advanced nodes, reflecting India's growing depth in semiconductor design,” the official statement said.

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

At its foundation is the establishment of a shared compute facility with over 45,000 GPUs, creating the computational backbone for AI research and deployment at national scale.

Under the AI Foundation Model pillar, 15 Large Language Models and Small Language Models are being supported across speech, text and vision modalities, informed the government.

The AI Kosh platform now hosts over 12,519 datasets, 307 AI models and 20 toolkits, making AI development resources openly accessible to researchers, startups and institutions across the country.

Twenty AI solutions have been deployed across 12 sectors through challenges, hackathons and in-house development.

To ensure AI capability reaches beyond metropolitan centres, 27 Data and AI Labs have been established across tier 2 and 3 cities, 684 Fellowships awarded to students, and 8.4 million learners supported through the YUVA AI course.

Eighteen Centres of Excellence have been set up across the country, and 20 Indian AI startups have been supported for capacity building. AI Governance Guidelines, released in November 2025, affirm India's commitment to developing AI that is safe, inclusive and trustworthy.

According to the statement, the convergence of AI and semiconductor investments is already reshaping India's electronics manufacturing landscape.

The sector has grown into an industry valued at Rs 13 lakh crore, and electronics has emerged as India's third-largest export category, a milestone that was unimaginable just a decade ago.

India is today the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

The advanced manufacturing ecosystem now taking shape, spanning AI-enabled data centre components, 5G equipment and high-end networking gear, is integrating India into global technology supply chains while creating large-scale employment domestically.

"Except for the headline, no changes have been made to the story, as it has been sourced from IANS."