US-based Astera Labs to set up operations in India

California-headquartered chip connectivity firm Astera Labs, on Friday, announced its plan to expand operations to India.

The new site to be opened in Bengaluru later this year will tap into the region’s rich engineering talent and establish a robust pipeline of cutting-edge interconnect technologies that enable artificial intelligence (AI) architectures throughout the datacenter, the company said in a statement.

“As a thriving international market with a world-class technical workforce, India is a clear choice for strategic expansion to help scale our engineering resources and support the next phase of growth for the company,” Sanjay Gajendra, President and COO said in a statement.

The new India site will join Astera Labs’ existing R&D centers in Santa Clara, California, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and Haifa, Israel, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2017 by Jitendra Mohan, Astera Labs makes connectivity hardware for cloud computing datacenters. Mohan attributes the company’s meteoric growth to its early investment in the cloud, AI and emerging connectivity tech. Its signature product, the Leo Memory Connectivity Platform, enables servers to create a unified coherent memory space between CPUs, and accelerators.

Because AI requires massive amounts of data moving into, out of and around datacenters, Astera has seen recent revenues bloom. After generating $79.9 million in 2022, revenue swelled 45% in 2023 to $115.8 million.

In April, US-based data and AI company Databricks also said that the company is "doubling down" investments in India amid "an increase in demand for data and AI solutions across the country".

Last week, Texas-based Trintech said, it is expanding its global footprint with a new center in Bengaluru with a focus on advancing AI and other cutting-edge technologies for financial close solutions. This move comes amid strong growth and just weeks after the launch of Trintech’s Innovation Lab at its North Texas headquarters. The Bengaluru facility, joining existing operations in Noida and Pune, will support Trintech’s Innovation Lab, the company said.

Needless to say, India’s AI market is projected to touch $17 billion by 2027, growing at an annualised rate of 25-35% between 2024 and 2027, IT industry body Nasscom and consulting firm BCG said in a report published in February. The growth is seen on the back of an increase in enterprise tech spending, the country’s expanding AI talent pool and a rise in AI investments,

India has over 420,000 employees who currently hold positions in AI job functions, the report added.