Can India make its own chips?
India now assembles a large share of the world's phones — but almost every chip inside them is imported. That gap is being closed from two ends: real fabrication plants are finally under construction, and India already holds one of the world's deepest pools of chip-design talent. The missing middle is the factory — and it is a generational climb.
From raw chip to finished device
The processors, memory and logic chips at the heart of every device are overwhelmingly imported — from Taiwan, South Korea, China and the US. This is the deepest hole in the stack: India's first commercial fabs are being built, but high-volume silicon is still to come.
Display panels & advanced components1
Mostly importedDisplay panels, high-density batteries and many precision components still arrive from abroad, mostly China and East Asia. Assembly happens here; the hardest-to-make parts do not.
Finished-device assembly4
Now largely domesticThis is the real win. Under the PLI scheme, the vast majority of smartphones sold in India are now assembled in India, and India has become a serious phone exporter — even though the chips inside are still imported.
The India Semiconductor Mission is funding real plants: Micron's assembly-and-test facility at Sanand is inaugurated and shipping the first made-in-India memory modules, while the Tata–PSMC fab at Dholera (~₹91,000 cr) targets its first silicon next. Packaging comes first; leading-edge fabrication is a multi-year, multi-generation climb.
Chip design & talent5
A genuine strengthIndia's quiet advantage: a very large pool of semiconductor design and R&D engineers, with global chipmakers running major design centres here. The brains are already in India — the factories are what's missing.
India can design the chip and build the phone. It still can't make the silicon in between.
The design talent is already here, and global chipmakers run major R&D centres in India.5 The assembly is here too — most phones sold in India are now made in India.4What sits in the middle — actually fabricating and packaging the chip — is the hard part, and it is finally being built: the India Semiconductor Mission, Micron's Sanand plant and the Tata–PSMC fab at Dholera.1,3Win that middle, and the whole stack becomes India's.
The companies India needs built
Every gap above is a company waiting to exist. If you are an engineer, founder or investor looking for where to point your next decade, start here.
An OSAT / advanced-packaging startup
Assembly, test and packaging is the fastest way into real silicon — lower capital than a fab, and the step India is already building around Micron's Sanand.
Closes: fabrication & packaging
Building this? Tell us →A fabless chip-design house
India has the world's deepest design talent. Design power-management, RISC-V or IoT chips for Indian needs and fab them abroad until home fabs mature.
Leverages: design strength
Building this? Tell us →A display-panel or component maker
Displays, high-density batteries and precision components still arrive from China. Any one of them, made in India, cuts a real import line.
Closes: display & components
Building this? Tell us →A semiconductor-materials supplier
Fabs need ultra-pure specialty gases, photoresists and wafers. This hidden supply chain is a durable, high-moat business as India's fabs come online.
Closes: the hidden supply chain
Building this? Tell us →These are opportunity areas for builders, not investment advice.
On finished devices, India has genuinely arrived — assembly and exports are real and growing. On the silicon itself, India is still almost entirely dependent, and will be for years: fabs take a decade to mature. But unlike many dependencies, this one has both ends already in India's hands — the designers and the assemblers. The decisive battle is the fab. That is where chip independence is actually won.
- 1.India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) — the ~₹76,000 crore programme to build fabrication, packaging and design capability (with up to 50% fiscal support for approved units)
- 2.PIB — Cabinet approval of semiconductor units, including the Tata Electronics–PSMC fab at Dholera, Gujarat (~₹91,000 crore)
- 3.PIB — inauguration of Micron's Semiconductor Assembly, Test & Packaging (ATMP) facility at Sanand, Gujarat, and the first made-in-India memory modules (Feb 2026)
- 4.India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) — the vast majority of smartphones sold in India are now assembled in India under the PLI scheme
- 5.MeitY — India is home to a large share of the world's semiconductor design talent, though most fabrication happens abroad
Figures are directional and drawn from public reporting; they indicate scale, not audited accounts, and shift year to year.