Qualcomm Technologies has completed the tape-out of its 2-nanometre semiconductor design — a milestone achieved, notably, with significant contribution from its engineering centres in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The announcement, made on Saturday, places India squarely in the cockpit of the global race to shrink transistors further, a contest where Apple, MediaTek, and Samsung are all jostling for supremacy on TSMC's next-generation manufacturing node. This competitive landscape was formalised during Computex 2025, where MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai announced that the company's first 2nm chip was scheduled to tape out in September 2025. This aggressive timeline underscores the pressure on all major players to transition to the new architecture to maintain a performance edge.
This design race is being further bolstered by ARM, which recently inaugurated its "Impact Hub" in Bengaluru. Tasked with designing next-generation 2nm silicon for AI servers, drones, and mobile devices, ARM has positioned its Indian operations at the very front of global semiconductor innovation. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while launching the facility in September, noted that this move represents a decisive step in technological self-reliance, effectively transitioning India from a hub of assembly to a global leader in core intellectual property creation
A tape-out — the final sign-off of a chip design before it is sent to a foundry for fabrication — is the semiconductor equivalent of locking a manuscript before it goes to print. Nothing changes after this point. That Qualcomm's Indian teams were integral to completing this for what will likely become the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 processor and Snapdragon X Elite 3, are expected to power flagship Android smartphones from late 2026, underscores a shift that has been years in the making: India is no longer merely writing software for silicon; it is now helping design the silicon itself.
The milestone was showcased at Qualcomm's Bengaluru facility during a visit by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who oversees the Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & IT portfolios. His presence was not merely ceremonial. It arrives barely a week after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 in the Union Budget, committing Rs 40,000 crore to electronics component manufacturing and signalling a decisive pivot from assembling chips to designing and fabricating them domestically. Notably, this announcement comes just days before the AI Summit in New Delhi, which is expected to be attended by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
"India is increasingly at the centre of how advanced semiconductor technologies are being designed for the future," Vaishnaw said. "Seeing Qualcomm's work here — its engineering strength, deep design capabilities, and long-standing commitment to India — is truly impressive. Milestones like this demonstrate how far India's design ecosystem has come and align strongly with our vision of building a globally competitive semiconductor industry".
The numbers tell their own story. Qualcomm's India operations represent its largest engineering workforce outside the United States — and by some measures, its largest globally. Savi Soin, president of Qualcomm India, told CNBC last year that the company now employs more engineers in India than anywhere else on earth, a claim he has repeated at multiple industry forums. The Indian teams work across design implementation, validation, AI optimisation, and system integration — contributing to platforms and products used by billions. "This achievement is a testament to the strength and depth of our engineering teams in India," said Srini Maddali, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm India. "Working closely with global programme and architecture teams on advanced semiconductor design requires the very best talent, and our India teams consistently deliver at a global standard".
The broader context is fierce. The 2nm node represents the next great leap in semiconductor manufacturing, promising roughly 15 percent higher transistor density, up to 18 percent better performance at the same power, and 25 to 30 percent lower power consumption at the same performance level, according to TSMC's own disclosures.
Apple is expected to have secured more than half of TSMC's initial 2nm capacity for its A20-series processors destined for the iPhone 18. However, supply chain analysis suggests that Apple may delay the full transition to 2nm chipsets later this year. While the Pro models are targeted for the 2nm A20, the standard iPhone 18 variants are now expected to arrive later as the company navigates high wafer costs and yield constraints.
MediaTek completed the tape-out of its 2nm Dimensity 9600 earlier, becoming one of the first to reach that milestone. Qualcomm, Apple, and MediaTek are all targeting launches in late 2026 — making the coming months a three-way sprint on what TSMC charges approximately $30,000 per wafer to produce.
While the mobile world waits for late 2026, the first 2nm-class consumer silicon is already a reality. Intel's "Panther Lake" was launched at CES 2026 as the world's first 2nm or sub-2nm class consumer SoC. Unlike the mobile designs still in the tape-out phase, Panther Lake has already been commercialised with products launched at the event. These advanced machines are scheduled to land in India within this quarter, marking the first time such technology is available to domestic consumers.
What makes Qualcomm's announcement politically potent, however, is its timing against India's semiconductor ambitions. Under ISM 1.0, the government committed Rs 76,000 crore across 10 projects, including Tata Electronics' high-volume fabrication plant in Dholera and Micron's test-and-assembly facility in Sanand, Gujarat. ISM 2.0 now extends the ambition beyond fabrication into equipment manufacturing, materials, intellectual property, and supply-chain resilience — precisely the layers where India's chip ecosystem has historically been weakest.
India consumes close to $50 billion worth of semiconductors annually, yet domestic manufacturing contributes less than $3 billion. With consumption expected to cross $100 billion by 2030, the gap is widening, not narrowing. The government's bet is that companies like Qualcomm — which has operated in India for over two decades and invested Rs 3,905 crore in expanding its Hyderabad campus alone — will serve as anchor tenants for a broader design ecosystem that includes startups, academic institutions, and domestic fabless firms.
Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary at MeitY and CEO of the India Semiconductor Mission, framed it as a matter of momentum. "India's Semiconductor Mission is progressing with strong momentum, supported by a strengthening design ecosystem and sustained industry participation," he said. "Qualcomm's long-term commitment to India reflects the growing depth of India's semiconductor design ecosystem and contributes to India's broader ambition of becoming a globally competitive hub for semiconductor innovation".
Soin, for his part, positioned India not as a cost centre but as a capability one. "India today plays a key role in how we support the design, development, and delivery of next-generation technologies for the world," he said. "The innovation being developed here is helping shape the future of connectivity, computation, and intelligent systems globally".
The distinction matters. For years, India's contribution to the global semiconductor value chain was largely confined to back-end services — verification, testing, and software enablement. The 2nm tape-out, if Qualcomm's characterisation of India's role is taken at face value, suggests that Indian engineers are now contributing to front-end design: architecture, implementation, and the kind of AI optimisation work that determines whether a chip runs inference efficiently at the edge or drains a battery in hours.
Shashi Reddy, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm India, pointed to the breadth of work. "Our R&D centres in India are contributing across multiple layers of system design — from architecture to implementation, software platforms, and use-case optimisation," he said. "In the era of AI, we support the development and optimisation of real-world use cases as part of Qualcomm's global programmes".
Whether this milestone transforms India's semiconductor narrative or merely decorates it will depend on what follows. A tape-out is a beginning, not an end. The chip must now go to TSMC for fabrication, return for months of function and performance debugging, and eventually reach mass production — a journey that industry professionals estimate takes several months at minimum. The real test will be whether the Design Linked Incentive scheme, which Vaishnaw reviewed with chip design companies just last month, can incubate the next generation of Indian semiconductor startups who tape out their own chips — not for Qualcomm, but for themselves.
What’s The 2nm Class War — Intel 18A vs. TSMC N2
While the semiconductor industry often treats "nanometres" as marketing shorthand, the jump to 2nm represents a fundamental shift in physics. Two distinct architectures are currently fighting for dominance. Both nodes abandon the decade-old FinFET design in favour of Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology.
TSMC's N2 (Nanosheet) uses the first-generation GAA nanosheet to prevent current leakage, offering roughly 25 to 30 percent lower power consumption compared to the 3nm node. In contrast, Intel 18A (RibbonFET) represents Intel’s implementation of GAA, which is utilised in the Panther Lake chips launched at CES 2026. While TSMC leads in raw transistor density at approximately 313 million transistors per square millimetre, Intel’s 18A focuses on maximizing clockspeed and thermal performance for the next generation of AI PCs.
The most significant technical differentiator for the chips landing in India this quarter is Intel’s PowerVia. Intel 18A is the world’s first high-volume manufacturing node to use Backside Power Delivery (BSPD). By moving the power delivery network to the back of the wafer, Intel reduces voltage drop by up to 30 percent and leaves more room on the front for logic signal routing. The standard TSMC N2 node used by Apple and Qualcomm does not include backside power delivery in its initial rollout, with TSMC planning to introduce its version, "Super Power Rail," in the N2P extension scheduled for late 2026.
Regarding commercial availability, Intel Panther Lake is already in mass production and shipping as of January 2026, making it the first 2nm-class SoC available to Indian consumers. Meanwhile, the Apple A20 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 remain in the earlier stages of the production cycle. Although Apple has secured the majority of TSMC's 2nm capacity, the high production cost of approximately $30,000 per wafer has led to expectations that 2nm may be reserved for the flagship iPhone 18 Pro models, while standard models may stick to 3nm variants until early 2027. |
