Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a long and productive meeting with Jensen Huang, the CEO of the American semiconductor giant NVIDIA. As per a tweet by the Indian Prime Minister, the two deeply discussed the exciting opportunities India offers in Artificial Intelligence.
Modi shared this news and some pictures of their meeting on social media, saying, “Had a fantastic discussion with Mr. Jensen Huang, the CEO of @nvidia. We delved into India’s vast potential in the AI domain.”
“Mr. Jensen Huang was appreciative of the strides India has made in this sector and was equally upbeat about the talented youth of India,” PM Modi said.
Is NVIDIA eyeing a plant in India?
The two meetings have led to severe speculation suggesting that NVIDIA, the world’s foremost AI chip and GPU manufacturer, may be considering opening a manufacturing plant in India.
To be clear, NVIDIA doesn’t make its semiconductors. It designs the GPU dies and sets up the manufacturing process. The actual manufacturing is usually carried out by semiconductor manufacturers like TSMC.
Nvidia Corporation, founded on April 5, 1993, by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, aimed initially to revolutionize 3D graphics for gaming and multimedia markets.
The Indian government has been very vocal about self-sufficiency or Atmanirbharta. At the same time, the government has been pushing the tech industry to manufacture the components and devices that they plan on selling in India, in the country. In such a scenario, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine that NVIDIA may want to set up a manufacturing plant in India.
Furthermore, India is home to one of the largest pools of AI talent and has several software development studios and companies working extensively on AI.
NVIDIA’s history in India
NVIDIA has established strong connections with India over the years. They first set up operations in India in 2004, nearly twenty years ago, with their initial base in Bangalore.
While writing this piece, India hosts four engineering development centers in Gurugram, Hyderabad, Pune, and Bengaluru. This significant presence has led to the employment of over 3,800 professionals at NVIDIA in India.
Furthermore, NVIDIA has cultivated a thriving community of developers in India, with more than 320,000 developers participating in NVIDIA’s developer program based in the country.
The popularity of NVIDIA’s CUDA parallel programming platform is evident, with approximately 40,000 downloads each month in India. India is estimated to have a substantial pool of 60,000 experienced CUDA developers. These statistics highlight NVIDIA’s impressive impact on India’s tech ecosystem.
NVIDIA is the world’s most valuable semicon company
Regarding financial performance, Nvidia reported impressive revenue for the second quarter of 2023, reaching $13.51 billion, a remarkable 101 percent increase from the previous year and an 88 percent increase from the last quarter.
The earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $2.48, marking an incredible 854 percent increase from the previous year and a 202 percent increase from the prior quarter. As a result, Nvidia’s stock recently hit an all-time high, surging by an astounding 315 percent.
This meeting between Modi and Huang is their second encounter, underlining Nvidia’s significant role in India’s rapidly growing technology industry. It’s worth noting that this meeting took place just a week after India achieved the historic feat of successfully landing on the Moon’s south pole, showcasing the expanding technological capabilities of the world’s largest democracy.
Following the meeting with Modi, Huang had a chance to connect with numerous researchers from renowned institutions in science and technology, including the Indian Institute of Science and various Indian Institute of Technology campuses, during an informal dinner.
