Modi’s third term aims domestic AI chip manufacturing, Ashwini Vaishnaw

The Narendra Modi government in its third term will work towards enabling domestic manufacturing of AI chipsets, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology.

“There are lot of global manufacturers who are looking at India and are interested in partnering us in developing their chipsets here,” Vaishnaw said. “We have started domestic manufacturing of smartphones and IT hardware. A beginning has been made in the direction of semiconductor and the Union Cabinet approved the Rs 10,372-crore AI mission on Thursday to create sovereign capability in computing. The next on our agenda, which we will look in the third term of the Modi government, is making AI chipsets,” the minister said.

AI chipsets basically include graphics processing units (GPUs) and other computing hardware, which are essential for creating AI models as these require large-scale computing. Central processing units (CPUs) are not able to do such large-scale computing. At present, the US and China lead in computing infrastructure required for the development of AI technology. US-based Nvidia dominates the GPU market with about 88% market share and there is a lag of 12-18 months in getting GPUs from the company due to its high demand across the globe.

Vaishnaw explained that there are several other global firms making GPUs, but their processing capacity is around 60% of Nvidia’s. “These firms want to scale up and we need to start from ground zero. If they partner us, together we will be able to make GPUs with processing capacity close to that of Nvidia’s over a period of time. It will be a win-win situation for both sides,” Vaishnaw said.

The minister said that alliance with the global firms would be on a public-private partnership mode as the government alone would not be able to do everything. The AI mission will also work in PPP mode to create public AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more GPUs, required for AI innovation.

Analysts said that the model is workable on the lines of smartphones and semiconductor if the government works out an attractive incentive structure here as well.

Vaishnaw said that on the agenda will also be to start domestic manufacturing of printed circuit boards and create capabilities where domestic firms emerge as leading global producers of telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and smart devices.

The minister said that with the success in domestic mobile manufacturing, which saw Apple setting up its base in the country and global manufacturers like Micron deciding to set up a local assembly, testing, marking and packaging plant, it’s quite evident that global players have developed confidence in India and the government’s incentive scheme. “Electronics manufacturing has gathered pace in the country. Going ahead, we will see many global players set up mega manufacturing campuses in the country. These will be 100-plus acre campuses, which will house several units,” Vaishnaw said. Financial Express