India has initiated the development of its own artificial intelligence (AI) chip, aiming to reduce reliance on Nvidia’s processors and establish a stronger domestic foothold in the global AI race. The project, led by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is in its early stages, with an official announcement expected later this year, according to a report by Livemint.
The government plans to manufacture these AI chips at a domestic semiconductor fabrication facility by 2027, marking a significant step in India’s efforts to strengthen its semiconductor ecosystem. MeitY has partnered with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the National e-Governance Division to develop the chip from the ground up, leveraging India’s expertise in processor design and open-source computing technologies.
The new AI chip will be based on RISC-V, an open-source reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture that allows organizations to develop their own custom processors. C-DAC’s proficiency in RISC-V development will play a critical role in the design and deployment of India’s first AI chip, which is expected to power a range of artificial intelligence applications in the future.
This initiative comes alongside India’s broader push to establish itself as a global AI powerhouse. On January 30, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that India is working on developing its own generative AI model, joining the ranks of global leaders such as OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek. Speaking at the Utkarsh Odisha Conclave, Vaishnaw revealed that the India AI Compute Facility has already secured 18,693 GPUs to support the creation of a Large Language Model (LLM) specifically tailored for Indian use cases.
In addition to the AI chip, India is also launching a foundational AI model designed to address the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity while mitigating biases in datasets. The government has invited proposals for AI model development, with a projected timeline of four to eight months for the first phase.
With these developments, India is taking decisive steps toward reducing its dependency on foreign semiconductor technology while strengthening its AI capabilities. The indigenous AI chip and generative AI model align with the nation’s vision to drive technological self-reliance and innovation, reinforcing its position in the global AI and semiconductor landscape.