Sovereign Silicon

For the last five years, the global conversation around semiconductors has been obsessed with "fabs." We’ve seen billion-dollar incentives for giant silicon foundries, centered on the physical process of printing circuits. But as we move into 2026, the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) has staged a brilliant strategic pivot.

If ISM 1.0 was about building the factory, ISM 2.0 is about owning the blueprints. We are no longer just content with becoming a manufacturing hub; we are building a Sovereign Silicon Moat.

From Fabrication to Foundation

The core philosophy of ISM 2.0, unveiled in the latest Union Budget, is the pursuit of "Full-Stack Indian IP." Fabrication is a capital-intensive commodity business where margins are thin and technology cycles are ruthless. Design-led sovereignty, however, is where the lasting value lies.

By shifting focus toward the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme and expanding it to support over 50 homegrown fabless champions, India is incentivizing the creation of chips that solve India-specific problems—from ultra-low-power IoT for smart villages to high-performance edge AI for our burgeoning Physical AI and robotics sector.

The RISC-V Breakout: DIR-V

One of the most exciting pillars of this new era is the DIR-V (Digital India RISC-V) program. For decades, the world has been beholden to proprietary Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs) like x86 and ARM. If a global geopolitical shift occurs, access to these architectures can be throttled overnight.

India’s commitment to RISC-V, an open-source ISA, is a declaration of independence. The success of the SHAKTI and VEGA processors—indigenously designed at IIT Madras and C-DAC—proves that India can build high-security, high-reliability silicon for defense, space, and strategic computing without a single line of foreign-controlled IP.

The Rise of the Fabless Champion

We are already seeing the first generation of these "Sovereign Silicon" stars. Companies like Netrasemi are already shipping edge AI silicon that rivals the best in the world, while Vervesemi is carving a niche in high-performance analog IP. These aren't companies waiting for a fab to open in Dholera; they are fabless champions designing the future of silicon today and manufacturing wherever the world has capacity.

This is the "Full-Stack" reality of 2026. An Indian robot, running on an Indian-designed SHAKTI core, authenticated via a Machine Aadhaar agent identity, and protected by the 20-year R&D runway of the 2026 Deeptech Gazette.

The trilogy is complete. Strategic policy, agentic autonomy, and sovereign silicon. This isn't just a roadmap anymore; it's a moat. And it's one that will define the next twenty years of Indian innovation.