Chip Design in India: Fabless Firms & GCC Design Centres
Tracking Indian fabless companies and global semiconductor design operations in India
Overview
India’s semiconductor story is not just about manufacturing. Long before the first fab broke ground, India had become one of the world’s largest bases for chip design. Global semiconductor companies have operated R&D centres in India for decades, and a growing cohort of Indian fabless startups is now designing chips from scratch.
This page tracks three distinct groups:
- Indian fabless firms — companies headquartered in India that design their own chips (including beneficiaries of the Design Linked Incentive scheme)
- GCC design centres — India R&D operations of global semiconductor companies that design chips
- EDA & IP providers — companies that build the tools and IP blocks used by chip designers (not chip designers themselves)
They have different strategic implications. Indian fabless firms build domestic IP ownership; GCCs bring design expertise, talent pipelines, and integration into global supply chains; EDA & IP providers underpin the entire design ecosystem. All matter, but differently.
As of July 2026, this tracker covers 34 Indian fabless firms, 13 GCC design centres, and 2 EDA & IP providers across 11 states.