🚨The Engineer Who Lost His Job After Pokhran Helped Build India's First AI Chip that Can Operates Without Internet
In 1998, when India conducted the historic Pokhran-II nuclear tests, the world responded with sanctions. Technology restrictions tightened, foreign companies became cautious, and many Indian engineers working abroad suddenly found themselves facing barriers they had never expected.
One of them was engineer Jyotis Indirabhai.
At the time, he was working in Japan's semiconductor industry on advanced chip technologies. But after the sanctions that followed Pokhran, projects involving Indian engineers were disrupted, and his career path took an unexpected turn.
Nearly three decades later, that same engineer has helped India achieve a breakthrough of its own.
His startup, Netra Semi, has developed India's first 12-nanometer Edge AI chip, the A2000, a milestone that could significantly strengthen India's position in the global semiconductor race.
To understand why this matters, one must first understand what Edge AI is.
Most artificial intelligence systems rely on cloud servers located far away from the device using them. Data is collected, sent to a server, processed, and then returned. Edge AI changes that model entirely. Instead of depending on distant data centers, the AI runs directly on the device itself.
Imagine a smart surveillance camera that can instantly identify suspicious activity without sending video to a remote server. Or a military drone that can analyze battlefield footage in real time and make decisions without waiting for instructions from a data center thousands of kilometers away.
That is exactly what Edge AI chips are designed to do.
Countries such as the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea have already deployed such chips across industries ranging from defense and robotics to smart cities and advanced manufacturing. Now India has entered that arena with an indigenous design of its own.
The journey behind the A2000 chip is equally remarkable.
After leaving Japan, Indirabhai spent nearly two decades in the United States, working with some of the world's most advanced semiconductor companies. During that period, he contributed to the development of processors, wireless technologies, GPUs, and AI hardware while building a portfolio of valuable patents.
But in 2017, he returned to India with a larger mission.
Rather than seeing India remain dependent on imported chips, he wanted the country to build its own semiconductor ecosystem. That vision led to the creation of Netrasemi in 2020.
Over the next several years, the company developed its own AI processor architecture, vision-processing technologies, and supporting software stack. The design was eventually fabricated using advanced manufacturing facilities, culminating in the launch of the A2000 in 2026.
From smart surveillance systems and industrial automation to robotics, autonomous platforms, and defense applications, the chip opens the door to a wide range of indigenous innovations.