Key Details
The exhibition highlighted different stages of India’s semiconductor-development pipeline—from processor intellectual property and chip design to fabrication and system integration.
C-DAC: AUM high-performance computing and AI processor, RUDRA-AUM compute node and an indigenous 64-bit RISC-V processor.
Aheesa Technology: A broadband device powered by C-DAC’s RISC-V processor and the India-developed Vihan software platform; designed to connect approximately 64 homes through one optical line terminal.
Netrasemi: A 12-nanometre AI system-on-chip taped out for CCTV surveillance, with vision-processing and video engines.
InCore Semiconductors: RISC-V processor intellectual property used in customer chips across process nodes ranging from 180 nanometres to 16 nanometres.
Vervesemi Microelectronics: Chips under development for motor control, energy meters, appliances, electric mobility and drones.
ChipIN Centre: More than one lakh engineers from over 500 organisations have received access to chip-design tools and fabrication services.
Participating institutions and start-ups have developed over 300 chip designs and recorded more than four crore hours of design-tool use.
SEMICON India 2026 was held in New Delhi from 17–19 September with more than 600 exhibiting companies.
Indian Chip Design Is Moving Towards Specific Products
The technologies displayed cover practical applications rather than chip design in isolation.
C-DAC’s work links indigenous processors with high-performance computing and AI systems. Aheesa Technology has incorporated a C-DAC RISC-V processor into broadband equipment, while Netrasemi’s AI chip targets surveillance, robotics, drones and other applications requiring processing close to the device.
Vervesemi is working on chips for motor control, metering and data acquisition—functions used across appliances, industrial equipment and electric mobility. InCore’s processor intellectual property has been fabricated in customer chips across several technology nodes.
The projects are at different stages. Taped out means that a chip’s completed design has been sent for fabrication; it does not by itself establish commercial production or market adoption. Similarly, a silicon-proven processor has been successfully implemented in fabricated hardware, but its commercial scale depends on customers and repeat orders.
Semicon 2.0 Broadens the Support Around These Designs
The exhibition followed the approval and operationalisation of Semicon 2.0, which extends semiconductor support beyond fabrication to design, equipment, materials, advanced packaging, research and talent.
The programme’s operational framework includes deployment-linked support intended to help Indian-designed chips move beyond prototypes. Its wider implementation strategy also targets design enterprises, applied research and industry-linked training.
SEMICON India’s displays illustrate the kinds of projects that this framework is expected to support: chips designed around a defined application, connected to system manufacturers and capable of progressing towards commercial deployment.
Policy Relevance
India’s design capabilities will create greater domestic value when Indian chips are incorporated into products purchased at scale. Tape-outs, demonstrations and access to design tools are important intermediate milestones, but they do not measure market success.
The next set of useful indicators is therefore different:
fabricated chips that pass testing and qualification;
designs adopted by Indian or international manufacturers;
repeat production orders and commercial sales; and
Indian intellectual property retained across successive product generations.
Public support should help close the difficult gap between a completed design and a reliable, competitively priced product. That requires access to fabrication, packaging, testing, certification and anchor customers—not design funding alone.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How many Indian-designed chips supported through public programmes progress from tape-out to qualified products, repeat orders and commercial deployment?
Follow the Full Press Release Here: SEMICON India 2026: From Silicon to Systems, India’s Semiconductor Journey on Display