The global semiconductor industry is worth around $800 billion and is expected to cross $1 trillion within a year, according to India’s electronics minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw. He also said the industry faces a shortage of nearly one million skilled professionals. Against those numbers, officials from India and the United States sat down in Washington on June 25 to talk chips.
S. Krishnan, secretary of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, met US Under Secretary of State Jacob S. Helberg. The Embassy of India in Washington announced the meeting in a post on X. “They discussed avenues for cooperation in building diversified and trusted supply chains, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing, AI adoption and securing access to critical minerals,” the post said.
The officials also deliberated on ways to secure access to those minerals, which are increasingly seen as critical for advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology. IANS, which reported the meeting, said it comes as both countries seek to strengthen supply chain resilience and reduce dependence in strategic sectors.
The Vaishnaw figures
Earlier in June, Vaishnaw said about one million semiconductor jobs are expected to emerge globally by 2032, while the industry is short of nearly one million skilled workers. He called that a significant opportunity for India to supply talent to the sector.
A roundtable with industry
A separate event in Washington covered similar ground. The U.S. India Strategic Partnership Forum, the Embassy of India and the Silverado Policy Accelerator hosted a roundtable called “Securing the Foundations of AI Together: U.S.-India Cooperation from Minerals to Microchips.” Krishnan attended, along with Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra, K. Nagaraj Naidu of the Ministry of External Affairs, Bill Guidera of the US Commerce Department and Christopher Saldana of the Energy Department’s Office of Critical Minerals, Materials, and Manufacturing.
The forum’s president and CEO, Mukesh Aghi, called microchips and critical minerals the “elixir” of the modern economy. Government can set the framework, he said, “but it is industry that will ultimately drive execution, innovation, and investment.”
Krishnan said India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem “has expanded dramatically” and that “semiconductor fabrication is now becoming a reality.” The next phase of the Semiconductor Mission will build on that, he said. Naidu said the two countries are “moving from principles to projects.”
Sources
- India, US discuss deeper cooperation in semiconductors, AI and critical minerals
- US, India Discuss AI and Semiconductor Cooperation
