India eyes chip investments at Pax Silica Summit

India will aim to get semiconductor investments and multilateral funding at the second summit of the 16-nation Pax Silica international coalition, focused on securing access to critical raw materials and rare earths in the backdrop of China’s weaponisation of supply chains.

Senior officials from the ministries of electronics and information technology, and external affairs will be in Washington DC for the conference on Thursday-Friday. The Netherlands, Germany and the European Union — newest entrants to the pact holding significant semiconductor manufacturing capability — will also participate.

“Pax Silica is the US Department of State’s flagship effort to strengthen economic security through trusted technology partnerships,” said an official. “It will be used to showcase India’s shift towards being a semiconductor manufacturing and design hub; the widening assembly, testing, marking and packaging ecosystem; as well as the potential for semiconductor devices in our vast internal market.”


Leading global artificial intelligence companies partnering in Pax Silica are also expected to be represented.

Foreign assistance support

India is also hopeful its semiconductor projects will get access to the US’ $250-million Pax Silica seed fund, officials said. Designed as a foreign assistance support, the fund is aimed at supporting critical mineral extraction and processing, critical infrastructure and manufacturing assets globally belonging to Pax Silica’s leading private sector partners and sovereign signatories.

“While the size of the fund may not push the needle on semiconductor investments, it will be important in establishing bilateral trust and cooperation, while also deepening industry linkages in the Indian market,” a second official said. “That is the target at this meeting.”

The fund is hoped to catalyse trusted capital from large sovereign wealth funds and private sources controlling more than $1 trillion in assets, according to the US.

New Delhi and Washington discussed the fund’s potential partnering with Indian semiconductor projects in which American firms have interest. The discussion took place during foreign secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to the US in February, as well as during US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s four-day visit to India in May, ET reported earlier.

The Trump administration has pushed the Pax Silica alliance to reduce Chinese over-concentration in global supply chains and prevent economic coercion.

The US has expressed interest in furthering industry partnerships and driving investments in next-generation data centres in India. During Rubio's visit, it also pushed cooperation in access to AI compute and processors. Sectoral businesses from both countries are also being encouraged to intensify collaboration.