India wants to become a global chip major, but the odds are steep: competition is fierce, and India is a late entrant in the race to make the most advanced chips.

In 2022, when the U.S. restricted exports of its advanced AI chips to China to curb Beijing’s access to cutting-edge technology, a global race for semiconductor self-reliance began.

For India, it offered an opportunity: the country wants to reduce dependence on imports, secure chips for strategic sectors, and capture a bigger share of the global electronics market shifting away from China.

India is one of the world’s largest consumers of electronics, but it has no local chip industry and plays a minimal role in the global supply chain. New Delhi’s “Semiconductor Mission” aims to change that.

The ambition is bold. It wants to create a full supply chain — from design to fabrication, testing and packaging — on Indian soil.

As of this month, the country has approved 10 semiconductor projects with total investment of 1.6 trillion rupees ($18.2 billion). These include two semiconductor fabrication plants, and multiple testing and packing factories.

India also has a pool of engineering talent that is already employed by global chip design companies.

Yet progress so far has been uneven, and neither the investments nor talent pool is enough to make India’s chip ambitions a reality, say experts.

“India needs more than a few fabs or ATP facilities (i.e., more than a few “shiny objects.”) It needs a dynamic and deep and long-term ecosystem,” said Stephen Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a science and technology policy think tank.

Ezell says that leading semiconductor manufacturers consider “as many as 500 discrete factors” before they set up multi-billion-dollar fab investments. These include talent, tax, trade, technology policies, labor rates and laws and customs policies — all areas where India has work to do.

The unit will make chips for power management integrated circuits, display drivers, microcontrollers and high-performance computing logic, Tata Electronics said, which can be used in AI, automotive, computing and data storage industries.

The U.K.’s Clas-SiC Wafer Fab has also tied up with India’s SiCSem to set up the country’s first commercial compound fab in the eastern state of Odisha.

These compound semiconductors can be used in missiles, defence equipment, electric vehicles, consumer appliances and solar power inverters, according to a government press release.

“The coming 3-4 years is pivotal for advancing India’s semiconductor goals,” said Sujay Shetty, managing director of semiconductor at PwC India.

Establishing operational silicon fabrication facilities and overcoming technical and infrastructural hurdles that extend beyond incentives will be a key milestone, according to Shetty.

These 2nm chips offer better performance and power efficiency due to their smaller transistor size. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation will start mass-producing cutting-edge 2nm chips later this year, according to an FT report.

Last week, Indian minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who was in Bengaluru to inaugurate a new office of semiconductor design firm ARM, said the British company will design the “most advanced chips used in AI servers, drones, mobile phone chips of 2 nm” from the south Indian city.

But experts say the role of local talent is likely to be limited to non-core design testing and validation, as the core intellectual property for chip designs is often held in locations like the U.S. or Singapore, where established IP regimes support such activities.

“India has sufficient talent in design space, because unlike semiconductor manufacturing and testing that has come up in the last 2 years, design has been there since 1990s,” said Jayanth BR, a recruiter with over 15 years of experience in hiring for global semiconductor companies in India.

He said global companies usually outsource “block-level” design validation work to India.

Going beyond this is something India’s government will need to solve if it wants to fulfil its semiconductor ambitions.

“India may consider updating its IP laws to address new forms of IP, like digital content and software. Of course, improving enforcement mechanisms will go a long way in protecting IP rights,” says Sajai Singh, a partner at Mumbai-based JSA Advocates & Solicitors.

“Our competition is with countries like the U.S., Europe, and Taiwan, which not only have strong IP laws, but also a more established ecosystem for chip design.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday commented on President Donald Trump’s decision to increase the cost of hiring overseas workers on visas.

Trump on Friday announced that he would raise the fee for an H-1B visa to $100,000, leaving companies scrambling. Employers now must have documentation of the payment prior to filing an H-1B petition on behalf of a worker. Applicants will have their petitions restricted for 12 months until the payment is made, according to the White House.

Huang and Altman responded to the changes in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt, where the two executives announced that Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as the artificial intelligence lab sets out to build hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of data centers based around the chipmaker’s AI processors.

“We want all the brightest minds to come to the U.S. and remember immigration is the foundation of the American Dream,” Huang said Monday. “We represent the American Dream. And so I think immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future, and I’m glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also expressed a positive outlook on Trump’s changes.

“We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of outlining financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman said.

The new $100,000 fee would be a seismic shift for U.S. technology and finance sectors, which rely on the H-1B program for highly skilled immigrants, particularly from India and China. Those two countries accounted for 71% and 11.7% of visa holders last year, respectively.

Those who already have H-1B visas and are located outside the U.S. will not be required to pay the fee in order to re-enter. Many employers use H-1B workers to fill the gaps in these highly technical roles that are not found within the American labor supply. 

— CNBC tech reporter Annie Palmer contributed to this report.

WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI leaders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman

President Donald Trump raised the fee for an H-1B visa to $100,000 on Friday, leaving companies scrambling to respond.

With many left wondering whether their careers will remain in tact, here’s a breakdown of the new H-1B fees:

What did Trump change?

As of Sunday, H-1B visa applications will require a $100,000 payment. Previously, visa fees ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per application, depending on the size of the company.

Employers now must have documentation of the payment prior to filing an H-1B petition on behalf of a worker. Applicants will have their petitions restricted for 12 months until the payment is made, according to the White House.

Who does this impact?

The fee will only be applied to new H-1B applicants, not renewals or current visa holders, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The fee will be implemented in the upcoming lottery cycle.

Those who already have H-1B visas and are located outside the U.S. will not be required to pay the fee in order to re-enter.

Leavitt also clarified that the $100,000 is a one-time payment and not an annual charge.

Exceptions can be made to any immigrant whose employment is deemed essential in the national interest by the Secretary of Homeland Security and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the U.S.

Employees with B visas who have start dates prior to October 2026 will also receive additional guidance in order to prevent using those temporary business visas as a workaround for H-1B visas.

Who are these workers and why are they needed?

H-1B visas allows highly skilled foreign professionals to work in specialty occupations that generally require at least a bachelor’s degree to fulfill the role. Jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, usually qualify.

Many employers use H-1B workers to fill the gaps in these highly technical roles that are not found within the American labor supply.

Companies in the tech and finance sectors rely heavily on these specially-skilled immigrants, particularly from India and China, which accounted for 71% and 11.7% of visa holders last year, respectively.

How many H-1B visas does the tech industry use every year?

The current annual cap for H-1B visas is 65,000, along with an additional 20,000 visas for foreign professionals with a master’s degree or doctorate from a U.S. institution. A lottery system is used to select additional petitions if demand exceeds the cap.

Since 2012, about 60% or more of approved H-1B workers had computer-related jobs, according to Pew Research.

Amazon was the top employer for H-1B holders in the fiscal year 2025, sponsoring over 10,000 applicants by the end of June, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Microsoft and Meta had over 5,000 each, while Apple and Google rounded out the top six with over 4,000 approvals.

WATCH: CoreWeave CEO on H-1B visas: Additional fee is ‘sand in the gears’ for access to talent