PM Modi's US visit: A roundup of tech deals and announcements

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden met in Washington and announced several agreements to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries. Also, to enhance Indo-US cooperation on artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, space research, and other technology segments, Modi met executives of various tech companies who not only expressed their interest to invest in the country, but some have even announced investments in India. 

Here’s a roundup of the recent technology-based investment plans and announcements made by the US majors in India. 

Google CEO confirms $10 billion investment

Google is investing $10 billion in India's digitisation fund, its CEO Sundar Pichai told Modi. Pichai met the PM on Friday and announced the opening of Google's global fintech operation centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in the state’s capital, Gandhinagar. The initiative will support small and large businesses in India, the US and other nations as well, he said. Google has been operating in India since 2004, with offices in five key cities including in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon-Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune. Last year, the tech company announced support for early stage startups with a particular focus on women-led startups under the India Digitisation fund. Notably, Google AI Research Center in Bangalore is building models to support over 100 Indian languages, and working with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to support open sourcing of speech data through India's ‘Bhashini’ project. The tech major has also partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras to establish a multidisciplinary Center for Responsible AI. 

Amazon commits $15 billion investment in India 

American e-commerce company, Amazon, has pledged to invest an additional $15 billion in India by 2030 to “build its cloud infrastructure” and “create thousands of jobs”. Amazon's CEO, Andrew Jassy expressed the company's keen interest in contributing to India's growth. After his meeting with PM Modi, Jassy announced that Amazon has already invested a staggering $11 billion in India. This would bring their total investment to $26 billion. These funds will be utilised to create more employment opportunities, support the digitisation of small and medium-sized businesses, and facilitate the export of Indian products worldwide, the CEO said. 

Micron to invest $2.7 billion for plant in Gujarat

American chipmaker Micron Technology said that it would invest up to $825 million in a new chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat, India, its first factory in the country that will create up to 5,000 new direct jobs in the region. The company said that the total investment in the facility will be $2.75 billion and of that, 50% will come from the Indian central government and 20% from the state of Gujarat. Earlier in that week - ahead of PM Modi's visit to the US - the Union Cabinet approved the project. Micron also said that construction of the new facility is expected to begin this year and the first phase of the project will be operational in late 2024. Further, a second phase of the project is likely to start in the second half of the decade. 

Applied Materials to invest $400 million in a new engineering center

US semiconductor firm Applied Materials announced its plans to invest $400 million over the next four years in a new engineering centre in India. The PM met with the company's CEO Gary Dickerson in Washington and invited Applied to strengthen the chip industry in the country. The new centre is expected to be located near the company's existing facility in Bengaluru and is likely to support more than $2 billion of planned investments and create 500 new advanced engineering jobs, the company said. Applied currently operates across six sites in India and works closely with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, two of the country's prestigious institutions. 

Microsoft CEO discusses AI and tech cooperation with India

Tech major Microsoft discussed the power of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), during a meeting between CEO Satya Nadella and PM Modi.  

“India is home to one of the most vibrant developer and start-up ecosystems in the world, and Microsoft remains deeply committed to the growth of Indian technology - that will impact both India and markets across the globe,” the statement said. 

Microsoft had launched ‘Jugalbandi’ in India last month. It is a new generative AI-driven chatbot on mobile devices for government assistance and information in multiple languages. 

Elon Musk looking at ‘significant investment’ in India for Tesla 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company plans to invest in India "as soon as humanly possible" and that “such an announcement may be expected soon”. His comment came after a meeting with PM Modi, during which he stressed on India’s "strong potential" in the areas of renewable energy, electric vehicles and satellite internet services. Tesla had to withdraw its India entry plans last year due to high import tax structures. However executives of Tesla visited India last month and held talks with Indian bureaucrats and ministers on establishing a manufacturing base for cars and batteries. 

Lam Research to train 60k chip engineers in 10 years 

Semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier, Lam Research, said last week, it plans to train 60,000 engineers in India in the next 10 years. During PM Modi's state visit to the US, the company said that the training on nanotechnologies will be facilitated by Lam Research’s virtual nanofabrication environment platform, Semiverse Solutions. The goal is to boost India's semiconductor education and workforce development, it said.   

Apple CEO Tim Cook says, India represents a “huge opportunity” 

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week that India represents a “huge opportunity” for Apple after the meeting with the Indian PM at the White House. The US tech giant opened its stores in Mumbai and Delhi in April this year. The company is looking to make India a “bigger manufacturing base” and has through its contracts with electronics makers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, started manufacturing several products in the country. In April, during his visit to India, Cook said Apple is “committed to growing and investment across the country.” 

India-US astronaut mission to space station next year 

During the PM’s visit to the US, India announced that it is joining the Artemis Accords, an American-led alliance seeking to facilitate international collaboration in planetary exploration and research. The new agreement aims to boost cooperation between the two countries for civil space exploration. In a related development, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the American space agency NASA are sending a joint mission to the International Space Station, a permanent laboratory in space, next year. 

India, US forge collaborations in quantum computing

Biden and Modi discussed an ext8ensive collaborative effort between the two countries, spanning diverse fields such as advanced computing and AI. The two nations have established a joint Indo-US quantum coordination mechanism to facilitate joint research between the public and private sectors across both countries. The partnership extends to the field of telecommunications as well, with a joint focus on advancing 5G and 6G technologies, including open radio access network (RAN) systems, according to a statement.