Pax Silica: Chip to Grid

Artificial intelligence will be a defining general-purpose technology of the coming decade, shaping productivity, national competitiveness, and economic security. AI represents not only a technological leadership opportunity but a strategic instrument to raise productivity across a large and diverse economy.

India enters this phase with several structural advantages, including one of the world’s largest engineering talent pools, a rapidly expanding digital economy with over one billion users, and a policy framework that has mobilized capital and institutional support for both AI and semiconductors. These strengths place it among a small group of countries with credible ambitions to lead in AI-enabled growth.

At the same time, AI is fundamentally constrained by physical infrastructure. Advanced computing workloads require large, continuous, and reliable supplies of electricity. As global demand for AI compute expands, the availability, efficiency, and resilience of power systems will increasingly determine the pace at which countries can scale AI deployment.

This paper advances a central proposition: AI infrastructure must be planned and executed as a connected national system. Semiconductor design and manufacturing, compute deployment, research and innovation, and power generation and delivery are interdependent. Weakness in any one layer constrains the entire system; strength across all layers enables scale, efficiency, and resilience.

Important progress has been made across the semiconductor and AI stack, including in chip design, manufacturing initiatives under the India Semiconductor Mission, sovereign AI compute under the India AI Mission, and R&D financing through the Research Development and Innovation Fund. The next phase requires coordinated planning across these layers, with particular attention to energy efficiency and infrastructure readiness.

The paper proposes a holistic framework built on three mutually reinforcing pillars: 

1. A stronger and more resilient electricity grid capable of supporting large-scale AI workloads.
2. An energy-efficient computing supply chain, from algorithms and system design to semiconductor equipment and materials.
3. The development of globally competitive semiconductor markets that translate infrastructure capability into sustainable economic growth.

This approach aligns with India’s commitments under the Pax Silica Declaration, which emphasizes trusted, efficient, and secure silicon as a foundation of modern economic security. Taken together, these actions can convert the country’s current momentum into durable leadership in AI and semiconductors.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all our internal and external authors and partners for their guidance, insight and support for the development of this report.