NVIDIA plans to develop India-specific AI chip, leverage country's massive chip designing talent base

NVIDIA, the American tech giant known for its advanced GPU chips, has proposed co-developing a custom AI chip with India, aiming to leverage the country’s robust chip design talent.

The discussions were initiated during a meeting between NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang and Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year, with the goal of tapping into India’s semiconductor expertise and growing technology market.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Union Minister for Electronics and IT, confirmed that conversations with NVIDIA are underway, as per a report by The Economic Times.

While discussions are still in the early stages, NVIDIA intends to collaborate with India to create a chip tailored for specific use cases within the country. Officials explained that the government is currently working through details such as costs, potential benefits, and practical applications of the proposed chip.

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The customised chip could be instrumental in several sectors, including the Indian Railways’ safety system, Kavach, and other emerging AI-based applications. It is expected that Indian startups, businesses, and public sector projects could benefit from this technology if the chip becomes part of the government’s AI mission.

Huang, whose company’s valuation now stands at an impressive $3.39 trillion — second only to Apple — sees India as a key partner in AI.

During his previous meeting with Modi, Huang highlighted the importance of adding value to domestic resources rather than exporting raw data to other countries. He stressed that India should focus on building its own AI capabilities rather than relying on foreign imports.

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The proposed collaboration between NVIDIA and India would involve multiple players. While NVIDIA’s design partners, such as Arm or AMD, would handle the chip’s core architecture, Indian entities like the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) or private design firms would customise the final layers for local use.

Officials believe that NVIDIA’s interest in India stems from the vast talent pool of chip designers available in the country.

According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, 19 per cent of the world’s chip designers are based in India, many of whom work for global companies. Experts have long urged the Indian government to develop a comprehensive ecosystem for domestic chip manufacturing to capitalise on this talent fully.

With Huang visiting India again this week, both NVIDIA and the Indian government appear committed to deepening their partnership. NVIDIA sees AI as the next big opportunity, and Huang believes that India is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in this new industry. According to Huang, “This is India’s moment, and it’s time to seize the opportunity.”