India has quietly emerged as the world’s design powerhouse in semiconductors, now hosting nearly 20% of global chip design engineers, according to a Bastian Research report cited by Moneycontrol. From Bengaluru to Hyderabad and Noida, global giants like Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, and Broadcom have built sprawling R&D centers, positioning Indian engineers at the heart of the chip industry’s execution, testing, and optimization pipelines.
This shift is more than just numbers as it reflects how India is being woven into the fabric of global innovation. While U.S. teams continue to steer strategy, the day-to-day engineering magic increasingly unfolds in India’s labs and tech parks.
The government’s nearly $9.2 billion or ₹76,000-crore Semicon India Programme is amplifying this momentum, signaling to manufacturers that the country is serious about building an end-to-end semiconductor ecosystem. Though fabrication facilities are still at a nascent stage, policy support combined with surging demand in sectors like mobile devices, electric vehicles, AI, and consumer electronics has created a ripe environment for growth.
“This growth is no accident. It’s backed by strategic investments, policy support, and the sheer momentum of sectors like mobile, automotive, AI, and consumer electronics,” notes Peeyush Singh, co-founder and director at Appinventive. The takeaway is clear: India’s chip story is no longer about “catching up”—it’s about cementing its role as an indispensable hub in the global semiconductor value chain.
Singh further says, “in just a few years, India’s chip market has jumped from $38 billion to nearly $50 billion, with projections soaring to over $100 billion by 2030.” He further added in his LinkedIn post that, “what’s even more remarkable is that nearly 1 in 5 semiconductor design engineers globally is Indian. And with over 22 design-linked projects and 6 fabrication plants already approved including a 3nm chip designed in India the country is proving it has the talent and technology to compete at the highest level. Major players like Tata Electronics, Micron Technology, and the HCL-Foxconn joint venture are investing billions to set up world-class infrastructure in Gujarat and UP.”
The report notes that a distinct split in how responsibilities are shared across the global chip industry. In the U.S., engineers are largely tasked with defining the bigger picture like deciding product goals, chip architecture, and performance benchmarks.
Indian teams, on the other hand, are deeply involved in the execution side: converting architecture into logic, running tests and simulations, fine-tuning power and speed, and developing drivers and firmware. They also play a growing role in enhancing the electronic design automation (EDA) tools that are essential to modern chipmaking. The report stresses that this isn’t a rigid top-down setup but rather a partnership built on complementarity. American teams focus on setting the strategic direction, while their Indian counterparts bring that vision to life with scale, detail, and precision in execution.
India’s rise as a hub for chip talent is no longer just a talking point as it’s a reality global firms cannot afford to ignore. With nearly one-fifth of the world’s semiconductor design engineers now based here, companies from Qualcomm to Nvidia are leaning on India’s ability to deliver at scale. What began as back-end support has evolved into a critical role in design execution, testing, and optimization. Add to that government backing through the Semicon India programme, and the country has become more than a talent pool. It’s fast turning into a cornerstone of the global semiconductor ecosystem.