THE CRUNCH

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wants the country to have its own GPU within about 24 months, according to secretary S. Krishnan. Speaking in a November 4 interview reported by ETGovernment, he framed the chip as a target under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0: "This will not happen overnight. It is a project that will require approximately 24 months."

The GPU sits inside a broader plan to build a domestic AI stack, which Krishnan described as five layers: energy, accelerator chips, computing infrastructure and servers, AI models, and applications. Some groundwork already exists. Companies including VVDN, Kaynes and Avalon make servers, and C-DAC has developed its Rudra server range for AI workloads, with the technology then transferred to local manufacturers.

Krishnan also drew a parallel with the Y2K software boom that fuelled India's IT services industry, which employs about 6 million people. He suggested AI could create a similar opportunity, though the work would differ. A NITI Aayog paper estimates roughly 2 million existing jobs could become redundant while around 4 million new ones emerge.

Separately, India plans to bring its SHAKTI and VEGA processors to commercial markets. Both are CPU designs based on the open-source RISC-V architecture, distinct from the GPU now being targeted. The effort has been running for years: IIT Madras released a SHAKTI software development kit back in 2019, and C-DAC's Aries 3.0 development board, built on the VEGA ET301, arrived in 2024. That 32-bit chip runs at up to 100MHz with 26KB of SRAM, suiting sensors, wearables and IoT devices rather than graphics work. Government-backed projects shown at the September 26 SEMICOM India event included a SHAKTI-based water-cleaning robot and a VEGA-based digital telescope.

The GPU target remains early stage: Krishnan did not name a manufacturer, chip supplier or builder. Major foreign partnerships have been announced regardless: ASML is partnering with Tata Electronics to equip India's first commercial fab in Dholera, Gujarat, planned around 300mm wafers and eventually 50,000 wafers per month, and Intel has announced a strategic partnership with Tata Group on manufacturing and packaging for the Indian market.