NVIDIA proposes joint AI chip development with India
What's the story
NVIDIA has pitched a partnership with India to create an artificial intelligence (AI) chip.
The company's CEO Jensen Huang made the pitch to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting in the US earlier this year.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, confirmed that the talks with NVIDIA for developing an AI chip in India are at an early stage.
Strategic collaboration
NVIDIA aims to utilize India's chip designing base
NVIDIA's plan is to leverage India's massive chip designing base to develop an India-specific chip and capitalize on the growing market.
The government is now considering different elements of this joint venture, including cost analysis, possible benefits, and real-world applications of such a co-developed chip.
This custom-made chip could even be used in unique Indian scenarios like the Indian Railways's security system, Kavach.
Potential impact
Co-developed chip could boost AI mission in India
The co-developed chip could also be used by Indian start-ups, companies, and the government to power various apps. This is especially true if the government chooses to make it available under its AI mission.
The core chip would be designed by NVIDIA's partners like Arm or AMD, while the top layer tailored for Indian use cases could be designed by a government-owned or private Indian company.
Talent attraction
India's chip design talent attracts NVIDIA
NVIDIA's proposal stems from the need to make the most of the massive number of chip designers in India.
An official told ET that only India and Germany have the capabilities to co-develop this chip with NVIDIA. But India is the first choice because of its unmatched talent pool in chip design.
Counterpoint Research's Parv Sharma noted co-developing a chip would be a major achievement as it would allow silicon for custom use cases in India.
Market potential
Co-developed chip could boost India's semiconductor mission
Sharma stressed that developing in India means adding design-related IP, cost-effective silicon, enabling AI start-ups' innovation, and managing supply chain risks.
He said this would contribute significantly to the India Semiconductor Mission as it would be the first cloud-based chip designed in India.
A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study found that 19% of the world's chip designers are based in India, most of whom work for back-office arms of top global chip designing firms.