Qualcomm already has chips designed entirely end-to-end in India and is shipping them globally

On April 23, Qualcomm India President Savi Soin said in an interview with CNBC that Qualcomm has designed chips in India because they want to take advantage of India's engineering talent pool. Qualcomm already has chips designed completely end-to-end in India and are shipping them globally.

“We now have more engineers in India than anywhere else in the world, and we see India as a huge market, a huge opportunity,” he said. “Our CEO promised two years ago that if India were to build a semiconductor manufacturing plant, we would help it achieve mass production.”

Qualcomm is expanding its presence in India with a new design center in Chennai to develop wireless technology. Qualcomm will invest Rs 1.77 billion (IT Home Note: Currently about RMB 154 million), which is Qualcomm's commitment to the Indian government's "Make in India" and "Design in India" vision.

The Indian government has approved three semiconductor factories in Gujarat and Assam with an investment of more than $15 billion. Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways and Communications, said the Indian government's goal is to have one of the top five semiconductor manufacturers in the world within the next five years.

To boost domestic manufacturing and export capabilities, India has announced production-linked incentives worth billions of dollars to attract investment in key areas and cutting-edge technologies and make India "an integral part of the global industrial chain."

Apple currently assembles about 14% of its iPhones in India, double last year's output, and Google plans to produce Pixel smartphones in India starting in the second quarter.