SEMICON India 2026 offered a detailed glimpse into the changing contours of India’s semiconductor ambitions, with the focus extending well beyond chip design to manufacturing, advanced packaging, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, materials and talent. Held at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi from September 17 to 19, the fifth edition brought together more than 600 exhibitors and showcased how indigenous technologies and a growing start-up ecosystem are contributing to the country’s larger semiconductor push.
For three days, Yashobhoomi in New Delhi became a window into the expanding capabilities of India’s semiconductor sector. SEMICON India 2026, held from September 17 to 19, brought together companies, start-ups, researchers, policymakers, investors and academic institutions under the theme “Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem.”
The fifth edition featured more than 600 exhibiting companies from India and abroad, alongside dedicated start-up and workforce-development pavilions, country and state pavilions and a hackathon. More significantly, the exhibition demonstrated how India’s semiconductor ambitions are increasingly extending from designing chips to building the wider ecosystem required to develop, manufacture, package and deploy them.
The displays covered a broad technological spectrum—from semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment to advanced packaging, processors, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
One of the notable themes at the exhibition was the effort to develop domestic capabilities across the computing stack.
C-DAC showcased technologies linked to high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, including the AUM HPC-AI Processor and the RUDRA-AUM compute node. Such initiatives underline the growing emphasis on indigenous computing capabilities rather than limiting semiconductor development to individual chip designs.
The exhibition also reflected the emergence of Indian companies and institutions working on application-specific processors, system-on-chip technologies and computing solutions for areas such as telecommunications, automobiles, artificial intelligence, surveillance and connected devices.
The development of indigenous processor technology has become an important component of India's semiconductor strategy.
C-DAC's 64-bit RISC-V processor represents one strand of this effort. Built around the open RISC-V architecture, the processor is intended to support high-performance computing and emerging digital applications.
InCore Semiconductors, meanwhile, showcased its RISC-V processor intellectual property and SoC design-automation tools. Its processor platforms cater to different computing requirements, including embedded and edge-AI applications. The company's processor IP has been silicon-proven across customer chips and technology nodes ranging from 180 nm to 16 nm.
Such developments are important because processor IP can provide the foundation on which companies build specialised chips and electronic systems.
Aheesa Technology demonstrated another example of how indigenous semiconductor technologies can feed into real-world infrastructure. The company has developed an internet-connectivity device capable of speeds of up to 1 Gbps and designed to enable an ISP to connect around 64 homes through a single Optical Line Terminal.
The device operates on Vihan, an Indian-developed software platform, and uses C-DAC's 64-bit RISC-V processor. The example illustrates how domestic processor technology can become part of a larger technology stack serving practical applications such as broadband connectivity.
The exhibition also moved the semiconductor discussion closer to consumer and industrial applications.
Indian companies and start-ups displayed solutions targeting smart appliances, energy management, industrial systems, connectivity, automotive technologies, surveillance and electric mobility.
Vervesemi Microelectronics, for instance, is developing semiconductor solutions for motor control, energy meters and data acquisition. Its applications include consumer appliances, electric mobility and drones.
These application-specific chips highlight another dimension of semiconductor self-reliance: the ability to develop specialised components for products used across multiple sectors of the economy.
Artificial intelligence was another major area where semiconductor development and applications converged.
Indian semiconductor start-up Netrasemi showcased AI-capable System-on-Chips designed for applications including smart surveillance, robotics, drones, mobility and intelligent sensors.
The company has taped out an indigenous AI SoC for CCTV surveillance using a 12 nm process node. The chip integrates AI/ML acceleration, vision-processing capabilities and video engines, illustrating the increasing importance of edge computing, where AI processing can take place closer to the device rather than relying entirely on remote computing infrastructure.
The convergence of AI and semiconductor technologies is opening opportunities in machine vision, smart infrastructure, autonomous systems and surveillance, making chip design increasingly relevant to complete technology solutions.
SEMICON India 2026 also made clear that a semiconductor industry cannot be built around chip designers alone.
The sector depends on an interconnected chain involving fabs, advanced packaging and testing, equipment manufacturers, materials suppliers, research institutions, system companies and a trained workforce.
This wider approach is reflected in Semicon 2.0, approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. The programme builds upon the earlier semiconductor initiative and focuses on six broad areas: design; machines and materials; additional fabs; advanced packaging; research and development; and talent development.
The emphasis marks a shift towards developing capabilities across multiple stages of the semiconductor value chain.
The Start-up Pavilion provided another indication of the growing role of young companies in India's semiconductor ambitions.
The Design Linked Incentive scheme has supported domestic chip-design projects in areas including video surveillance, drone detection, energy meters, microprocessors, satellite communications, broadband and IoT systems.
The Chips to Startup programme is similarly aimed at developing semiconductor expertise among students, researchers, academic institutions and start-ups.
More than one lakh engineers from over 500 organisations—including around 400 academic institutions and 100 start-ups—have been onboarded by the ChipIN Centre through the C2S Programme and DLI Scheme. Participants have received access to chip-design tools, fabrication services and specialised training.
The programme has also contributed to more than 300 chip designs developed for fabrication at foundries in India and overseas, alongside more than four crore hours of chip-design tool usage. This has created a large centralised community of semiconductor-design users at the ChipIN Centre.
SEMICON India 2026 was also significant because it came at a stage when India's semiconductor programme was moving towards actual manufacturing and commercial operations.
Under the Semicon India Programme, 12 semiconductor projects have been approved across six states, involving investment commitments of more than ₹1.64 lakh crore. Three facilities have already entered commercial production.
That transition changes the nature of the semiconductor conversation. The focus is increasingly moving from announcing ambitions and creating policy frameworks to establishing production capabilities, developing supply chains and connecting domestic technologies with global markets.
The most important message emerging from the exhibition was the breadth of the ecosystem being assembled around semiconductors.
A modern semiconductor industry requires designers, processors, fabrication plants, packaging and testing facilities, equipment and materials suppliers, software developers, researchers, system integrators and skilled engineers. Each component depends on the others.
SEMICON India 2026 brought many of these elements together in one venue. The displays ranged from RISC-V processors and AI-enabled SoCs to high-performance computing, application-specific chips and technologies supporting semiconductor manufacturing.
The event therefore offered more than a display of individual products. It provided a snapshot of an ecosystem in development—one in which domestic intellectual property, manufacturing capacity, research, start-ups and skilled manpower are increasingly being connected.
The journey showcased at Yashobhoomi was ultimately about more than producing a chip. It was about creating the technologies, infrastructure, talent and industrial partnerships needed to move from silicon to complete systems.
Leave Your Comment