Govt to target 200 chip design startups, firms under Semicon 2.0: Vaishnaw

The government will target at least 200 startups and companies designing chips in India under the next phase of the country's semiconductor mission, Semicon 2.0, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

Addressing the inaugural session of SEMICON India 2026, Vaishnaw noted chip design would be the first of six pillars of Semicon 2.0, with the government scaling up ambitions after the previous phase of the mission saw more than 105 startups attempted chip design, of which about 20 secured venture capital funding worth around Rs 800 crore.

"That was just the beginning.

This time our ambition is much bigger.

We would be targeting at least 200 startups and companies which design chips in India across the spectrum of semiconductor requirements," he said.

The minister said the country had built the foundational base for a domestic semiconductor industry over the past few years through Semicon 1.0, a calibrated programme focused on ...