India tech push targets chips, AI and data centres

India is investing billions of dollars in semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence and data centres as it tries to become a global technology powerhouse.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a groundbreaking ceremony for a chip assembly and testing facility that “this decade is India's ‘Techade’”. The country is trying to reduce reliance on imported chips while expanding electronics production and AI-linked infrastructure.

From 2017 to 2025, India imported about $150 billion worth of microchips. New Delhi has pledged more than $20 billion in government support to cut that dependence. Five chip assembly, testing and packaging plants are now in commercial production, involving Micron, Kaynes, CDIL, Suchi Semicon and CG Semi. Another seven projects have been approved, including a Tata Electronics chip factory in Gujarat in partnership with Taiwan's PSMC.

Government figures estimate India's semiconductor market at about $50 billion in 2026 and project it to reach $110 billion by 2030 and more than $200 billion by 2035. New Delhi calls semiconductor production “an urgent national priority”.

India's electronics production rose from about $31 billion in 2014-15 to $133 billion in 2024-25, according to the government. Global manufacturers including Apple and Samsung have expanded production in India as companies diversify supply chains beyond China.

The government says India has only about 3% of global data-centre capacity, despite generating large amounts of digital data. It says data-centre projects worth nearly $70 billion are under construction and a further $90 billion have been announced. Investors include Reliance, Adani, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. Google is building a $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam.

India also points to its workforce. The government says the country has nearly 20% of the global chip-design workforce, and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says about 70,000 design engineers have been trained in the past four years.

Challenges remain. Arvind Gupta, head of the Digital India Foundation, said India must navigate technology geopolitics and secure global capital, talent and hardware resources. Nomura has called India “ground zero” for AI-driven job disruption in Asia because of its large workforce and IT-services sector, while the government expects AI-linked jobs to nearly double to 1.25 million by 2027.