By Hamza Faisal
India is putting serious money behind its bid to design chips at home. The Technology Development Board (TDB), part of the Department of Science and Technology, has signed an agreement with Bengaluru-based BigEndian Semiconductors to provide ₹130 crore in financial support for Project VeerAI, an indigenous AI vision system-on-chip.
The funding comes from the government's Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund and will be disbursed as optional convertible debt.
The announcement, made on October 5, 2026, is part of India's broader push to build semiconductor capabilities for critical and emerging applications.
The project has a total cost of ₹260 crore and aims to carry the chip technology from technology readiness level 5, where a prototype works in a relevant environment, to TRL-9, the point where it is proven in real-world deployment and ready for commercial use.

A chip designed for secure cameras first

Project VeerAI is developing a camera-focused AI vision SoC on what the government calls a sovereign technology platform. The chip is aimed at surveillance applications, particularly CCTV systems, combining AI processing and smart features with built-in security, privacy, and connectivity.
The positioning is deliberate.
By designing the chip domestically, India wants to reduce dependence on externally developed semiconductor supply chains for sensitive applications. The platform is initially targeted at India and the Global South, where demand for secure and cost-effective surveillance infrastructure is growing fast.
For governments and enterprises that worry about foreign backdoors in imported camera chips, a homegrown alternative carries obvious appeal.

Beyond surveillance: a wider roadmap

While cameras come first, the roadmap extends much further. The same platform is envisaged for applications in defence, automotive, industrial, and medical domains, creating a wider market for indigenous AI-enabled semiconductor solutions.

TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak said the support reflects the board's focus on enabling Indian companies to build strategic semiconductor capabilities and turn domestic design expertise into deployable products.
He noted that semiconductors underpin almost every emerging technology, and that the RDI Fund exists precisely to carry promising technologies from advanced development to commercial deployment. 
The strategy leans on a strength India already has: deep VLSI design talent. Rather than competing head-on with the general-purpose AI chips of global giants, BigEndian is targeting application-specific SoCs, chips tailored to a single job.
In AI vision, that focus means shorter development cycles and a faster path to commercialisation. Promoters of the company said the RDI support will help accelerate development and validation of the chip toward commercial readiness.
India has been steadily layering its semiconductor ambitions in 2026, from design-linked incentives to supply-chain partnerships. Project VeerAI adds a tangible piece to that puzzle: a working chip, designed on home soil, aimed at markets where India can compete on both security and cost.
By Hamza Faisal