Image Courtesy: ET Telecom

The Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay IIT Bombay and AMD India have strategically collaborated to support and advance semiconductor startups across the country.

Through this alliance, AMD will offer financial grants to startups incubated at IIT Bombay that are focused on creating energy-efficient spiking neural network (SNN) chips. These startups will be tasked with developing solutions to drastically cut down the energy usage associated with traditional neural networks.

Ms. Jaya Jagadish, Country Head of AMD India, expressed the company’s goal, “We are striving to achieve a 30-fold increase in energy efficiency for our processors and accelerators used in high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) training by 2025. This target represents a pace of improvement in energy efficiency that greatly exceeds the overall industry progress over the past five years.”

Ms. Jagadish emphasized AMD’s commitment to collaborating with both industry and academic institutions to propel innovation. As India implements a comprehensive semiconductor strategy, fostering and scaling startups in this sector becomes increasingly crucial.

Shaji Varghese, CEO of SINE at IIT Bombay, highlighted the importance of this initiative and said, “Given the lengthy design cycles and high entry costs in semiconductor design, our goal at SINE is to nurture and build cutting-edge semiconductor design startups by bridging existing gaps in the industry.”

This collaboration underscores the pivotal role played by IIT Bombay in shaping India’s semiconductor future. As a leading incubator for innovative startups, IIT Bombay continues to drive technological advancements by supporting initiatives that address critical industry needs. The partnership with AMD India exemplifies the Institute’s commitment to fostering cutting-edge research and development, solidifying its position as a cornerstone of India’s semiconductor ecosystem, and propels the nation towards a more sustainable and technologically advanced future.