India wants to become a semiconductor nation with fabs and its own CPU designs. However, the first made-in-India CPU may still have to be manufactured abroad.
In the shadow of the major subsidy programs for the semiconductor industry in China, Europe, Japan, South Korea and the USA, India is also trying to establish itself as a manufacturing location. To this end, the country has promised 10 billion US dollars in subsidies. These efforts should bear their first fruits in 2025, as Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister responsible for electronics and information technology among other things, announced on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The first 28 nm processor developed entirely in India is to be presented this year. What sounds unspectacular at first is a big step for the country: until now, only 180 nm chips could be manufactured in the country. India wants to become more independent, but above all wants to keep more of its semiconductor sales in the country. Modern semiconductors have also been developed in India for years, but production has taken place elsewhere.
It is unclear which chip is involved. The most likely is probably a Shakti processor. Shakti develops RISC-V cores and started as a project at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras, with a successful tape-out in Intel's 22 nm Finfet process in 2018. A Vega processor, a series of RISC-V cores developed at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Kerala, is also conceivable.
Really already made in India?
It is equally unclear whether the chip will actually be manufactured in India initially: The first 28-nm series production is not scheduled to start until 2026, with construction only beginning in early 2024. The project is said to be on schedule; it is a joint venture between the Indian conglomerate Tata Group and Powerchip from Taiwan, with 28-, 50- and 55-nm processes planned. The plan is to launch 50,000 wafers per month. Among other things, the Tata Group manufactures cars, in which many of the chips are likely to end up.
It is therefore possible that the Made-in-India chip will initially still be manufactured in Taiwan. It is intended for use in cars and trains. India is currently relying on older processes. Although these have lower margins, it is cheaper to set up the plants and demand from the automotive, telecommunications and entertainment industries is high.
In recent years, the market share of Chinese companies in this sector has grown strongly, which has already attracted the attention of the US government. India could therefore be an interesting alternative for Western companies - Analog Devices, for example, is planning a collaboration with the Tata Group.
https://www.golem.de/news/made-in-india-indiens-erster-28-nm-prozessor-kommt-2025-2501-192734.html