India deeptech funding hits $1.55B as AI chips and spacelead growth

This funding snapshot shows India’s deeptech ecosystem edging forward rather than exploding. $1.55 billion across 264 deals is modest compared with U.S. and Chinese volumes, but the mix matters: semiconductors, spacetech, quantum and AI‑driven infrastructure are now clear favourites. Chip‑design startups alone raised nearly $200 million, a sharp jump over prior years, helped by India’s policy push to build a domestic semiconductor stack.

For the AGI race, these numbers suggest India is slowly building out the “hard tech” complement to its abundant software talent. Frontier AI increasingly relies on custom accelerators, novel packaging and tight integration of sensing, compute and communications. A pipeline of Indian companies working on microcontrollers, secure IoT, industrial AI and space communications won’t move global benchmarks overnight, but it does diversify where key IP is created.

The article also underscores how thin the scale‑up layer still is: fewer than 30 deeptech companies have raised more than $10 million to date. That’s a warning sign that without more late‑stage capital and patient LPs, promising AI‑adjacent hardware and infrastructure plays may stall or be acquired early by foreign buyers. For India to matter in AGI beyond being a massive user base, these early‑stage green shoots need a more robust growth‑stage funding spine.