It’s a wrap: News this week (June 17–June 23)

There have been multiple developments on the tech front this week, especially against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US. From multiple semiconductor deals to new generative AI announcements, this is the list of the most important developments this week for a quick catch-up:

India-US semiconductor deals

US chipmaker Micron is setting up a $2.75 billion semiconductor testing and assembly plant in India. This plant will come up in Sanand in Gujarat and would be built in two phases, starting later this year. It will have the facility for assembly, testing, and packaging of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and Nand flash modules.

The semiconductor firm’s plan to establish the India facility emerged first early this year, however, the final approval from the Union Cabinet was only confirmed this week. The decision comes at the time of PM Modi’s three-day visit to the US. 

Further, US semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials has also announced a $400 million investment in India to build an engineering centre. To be located in Bengaluru, the centre will be used for developing and commercialising equipment manufacturing.

Another US-Semiconductor firm Lam Research announced that it is planning to train 60,000 engineers in India in the next 10 years. The training will be facilitated by the company’s virtual nanofabrication environment platform, Semiverse Solutions.

Ministry of Earth Sciences to procure two supercomputers

France-based advanced computing firm Eviden has been awarded a $100 million worth of contract from the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India to deliver two new supercomputers for weather modeling and climate research. These supercomputers are expected to triple the computing capacity of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF). These systems will be based on Eviden’s BullSequana XH2000 supercomputers with a capacity of 21.3 Petaflops.

India joins Artemis Accords

India will be joining the Artemis Accords to join the civil space exploration initiative. In addition, the space agencies of both India and the US – Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and National Aeronautics and Space Authority (Nasa), respectively – agree to a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024.

The Nasa-led Artemis Accords was initiated in 2020, with seven founding members including the US, UK, and Canada. The Artemis Accords is based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that lays down a set of principles guiding civil space exploration. 

Digantara raises Series A funding

Bengaluru-based spacetech startup Dignatara raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), marking its official funding since the split from Sequoia. 

In July 2021, Digantara raised a $2.5 million seed round from Kalaari Capital, which also participated in the Series A round.

Microsoft’s new Copilot offering

Microsoft has introduced Copilot in its cloud quantum computing service Azure Quantum. It will help scientists research complex chemistry and materials science problems using natural language. To date, Microsoft has integrated Copilot in several offerings including Windows, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft BI.

The company also introduced Azure Quantum Elements a new computing service that bundles high-performance computing (HPC), AI, and quantum computing. It accelerates the research and development pipeline, bringing products quickly to the market. 

AWS’ $100 million fund for generative AI

Amazon Web Services has launched a new program called the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center for generative AI innovation. The company has pledged $100 million towards the program and will connect AWS-affiliated engineers and data scientists to customers and partners to launch new AI products and services. 

Another major generative AI announcement this week was LTIMindtree’s launch of Canvas.ai to improve business innovation and engineering productivity. Using Canvas.ai will reduce up to 50% the time and effort required for app modernisation and cloud migration programs, the company said in a statement.