C2i Semiconductor tapes out AI server power chip

Bengaluru: Indian semiconductor product startup C2i Semiconductors on Thursday announced the tape-out of its smart power stage chip purpose-built for AI infrastructure. Designed in India by a homegrown team of semiconductor engineers, the startup is backed by Peak XV Partners.

As AI workloads scale globally, data centres are becoming increasingly power-intensive. Power stage chips play a critical role in regulating, distributing and optimising power across the compute stack, making them fundamental to the next generation of AI infrastructure.

Tape-out is a critical stage in semiconductor development, where a finalised chip design is sent to a foundry for fabrication. For C2i, this validates its ability to architect, design and validate a complex semiconductor product entirely from India, spanning the full journey from concept to tape-out.

Amitesh Sinha, CEO of India Semiconductor Mission and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), said, “The DLI Scheme has financially supported 24 projects and 105 companies for advanced chip design tools. These efforts of the ISM have started showing outcomes wherein majority of these companies have taped out chips and raised venture capital funding for scaling up their solutions."

CEO and Co-Founder of C2i Semiconductors Ram Anant.

Ram Anant, CEO and Co-Founder of C2i Semiconductors, said, “This is a proud moment for our team and a reflection of years of focused engineering effort. We have built the capability, the team and now the chip, right here in India. It marks an important step in our journey to build semiconductor products from India for global markets.”

C2i Semiconductors plans a pipeline of chips focused on AI infrastructure, and the startup is currently engaged with potential customers and partners in India and globally.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV and Surge, said, "AI is creating a once-in-a-generation infrastructure buildout, and power is becoming one of its most critical constraints. C2i's tape-out is significant because it shows that India can build at the deepest layers of the AI stack, not just applications and services. A smart power stage chip for AI infrastructure, designed entirely in India, is exactly the kind of deeptech ambition we believe the country needs more of."