In a major technological breakthrough, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has officially unveiled India’s first indigenous AI processing chip named “Dhruva”. Developed by the RISC-V Processor Lab at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, this chip is designed specifically for applications in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
What makes “Dhruva” significant is not just its technical capabilities, but the fact that it marks a leap towards self-reliance in semiconductor technology—an area India has long depended on foreign countries for. According to the researchers, Dhruva is built using the open-source RISC-V instruction set and is optimized to accelerate tasks related to speech recognition, object detection, language processing, and more.
The chip was fabricated using a 7nm process node, and while it’s still in the prototype stage, the early benchmarks have been promising. It consumes low power and is ideal for edge devices, which are rapidly being deployed in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, education, and smart city infrastructure in India.
The development of Dhruva is being viewed as a crucial part of India’s broader strategy to build a robust semiconductor ecosystem under the Semicon India Programme. With tensions in global supply chains and increasing digital dependency, the need for homegrown solutions has never been more urgent.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, stated that this chip can pave the way for more indigenous processors in the future, helping reduce dependency on global chip manufacturers. The chip is currently undergoing testing and integration into real-world applications, with plans for commercial-scale production in the coming years.
This achievement aligns with India’s vision of becoming a global hub for semiconductor innovation and could eventually compete with offerings from companies like NVIDIA and Intel in the AI chip space. It also boosts India’s credibility in global tech circles, proving that the country is not just a user of advanced technology—but a creator.