Quick Take
- Semicon 2.0 has drawn about Rs 1 Lakh Cr of investment interest since July 2026
- The government now targets 200 chip design startups and companies, against 105 under Semicon 1.0
- About 20 of those 105 startups raised venture capital, worth roughly Rs 800 Cr in all
Semicon 2.0 has drawn investment interest of about Rs 1 Lakh Cr, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at Semicon India 2026 on September 17, 2026.
That money is interest, not approved projects. Vaishnaw put the same figure at $11-12 Bn, and said it came from talks with companies weighing chip projects. Details will follow later.
Semicon 1.0 approved 12 semiconductor units carrying Rs 1.64 Lakh Cr of committed investment. Three of those 12 have started commercial production so far.
Announcements move faster than output.
How much of the Rs 1 Lakh Cr is committed money?
None of the Rs 1 Lakh Cr is sanctioned yet. The figure covers investment interest across the Semicon 2.0 ecosystem, not projects with money released.
The Union Cabinet cleared Semicon 2.0 in July 2026 with an outlay of Rs 1,27,500 Cr. Semicon 1.0 was approved in December 2021 with Rs 76,000 Cr.
Vaishnaw said Semicon 2.0 could create close to one lakh jobs, with room for more. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says the second phase is about putting the wider ecosystem in place.
| Measure | Semicon 1.0 | Semicon 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Approved | December 2021 | July 2026 |
| Government outlay | Rs 76,000 Cr | Rs 1,27,500 Cr |
| Chip design target | 105 startups tried it | 200 startups and companies |
| Talent target | 85,000 design engineers in 10 years | 1 lakh technicians in 5 years |
| Investment position | 12 units, Rs 1.64 Lakh Cr approved | Rs 1 Lakh Cr of interest so far |
What does Semicon 2.0 offer chip design startups?
Semicon 2.0 targets at least 200 startups and companies designing chips in India, and chip design is the first of its six pillars.
Vaishnaw said more than 105 startups tried chip design under Semicon 1.0. About 20 of them raised venture capital worth roughly Rs 800 Cr in total.
“This time our ambition is much bigger,” the minister said of the 200-company target at the inaugural session in New Delhi.
The other five pillars are machines and materials, fabrication, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent. More than 400 universities already use chip design software from Cadence, Siemens and Synopsys.
What did Micron, Tata Electronics and Applied Materials announce?
Applied Materials made the largest single commitment, $5 Bn in India through 2035. The US equipment maker calls the ten-year plan India Vision 2035.
Its centrepiece is a proposed 140-acre research park near Bengaluru international airport. Applied Materials wants cleanrooms there for work on 300mm silicon wafers, the discs that chips are cut from.
“Today, India is participating mostly in the design part of the product life cycle,” said Prabu Raja, president of the semiconductor products group at Applied Materials.
Applied Materials employs more than 7,000 people in India and plans to more than double that research workforce. Nothing has been built or sited yet.
Micron Technology expects its Sanand plant in Gujarat to process hundreds of millions of chips in 2027. Chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said the figure this year is tens of millions.
“Potential does not ship products. What I see in India today is execution,” Mehrotra said. Sanand started commercial production in February 2026.
Tata Electronics signed 16 agreements at the event, with suppliers from Europe, Japan, Singapore and India. Chief executive Randhir Thakur said the Dholera fab and the Assam packaging plant stay on schedule.
More than 450 ecosystem partners now work on the Dholera project, Thakur said, across construction, equipment, chemicals and materials.
Where is India short of chip factory workers?
India holds about 20% of the world’s chip design workforce and almost no advanced manufacturing workers. That is the reading of S Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
“What we don’t have is a workforce that is trained in advanced manufacturing,” Krishnan said.
The government plans to train more than one lakh technicians and cleanroom workers over five years. Vaishnaw said it will work with bodies such as Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute to set up training centres.
About 70,000 design engineers have been trained so far, against a ten-year target of 85,000 under Semicon 1.0. Teaching at the 400 universities will now stretch from chip design to systems design.
Around 300 fresh graduates from Indian universities are training at the Taiwan fab of PSMC, the Tata Electronics technology partner at Dholera.
Infineon Technologies shows what that pipeline feeds. Chief executive Jochen Hanebeck said the German chipmaker grew its India headcount 28% in the past year. Infineon Technologies now has more than 2,800 staff across Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
What this means for you: Semicon 2.0 has room for 200 design companies and the first phase funded about 20. Get your application in early.
StartupFeed Insight
The number to watch is not Rs 1 Lakh Cr. It is how many design companies get named under Semicon 2.0. Semicon 1.0 had 105 startups in chip design and funded about 20, a rate of 19%. Hold that rate against a 200-company target and you get 38 funded firms, not 200. Founders in fabless design, test equipment and packaging materials have the clearest opening, because the fabs need suppliers they cannot cheaply import. If fewer than 60 design companies are named by Semicon India 2027 next September, the bottleneck is approval speed, not ambition.
Harshvardhan Kothari, Technology and Policy Correspondent
Frequently Asked Questions
Have a tip? Write to us at editorial@startupfeed.in.
Liked this story? Follow StartupFeed on Google so our reporting reaches you first.
