23 Chip Tapeouts Completed in India Under DLI Scheme — Design Ecosystem Showing Real Output
India has completed 23 chip tapeouts across various foundries under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme, with 105 companies now having access to advanced chip design tools and 24 semiconductor design projects approved — marking a shift from programme enrolment to actual silicon output.
A tapeout is the moment a chip design is finalised and sent to a foundry for fabrication — it is the output metric that separates a design programme that produces paper from one that produces chips. 23 tapeouts under the DLI scheme, including at advanced technology nodes, means India's chip design ecosystem is now producing real silicon, not just training engineers. The 105 companies with access to advanced EDA tools (up from 315 institutions under C2S) signals that the design pipeline is broadening from academic to commercial.
DLI scheme projects cover applications in video surveillance, drone detection, satellite communications, energy metering, broadband systems, and IoT — sectors where Indian chip design talent is directly serving domestic demand rather than only MNC design centres.
For institutions with VLSI and chip design programmes, the DLI tapeout number is the most important signal of 2026: the programme works. 23 tapeouts means 23 design teams found a foundry, completed a full design cycle, and produced silicon. Students who come out of C2S-aligned programmes and go into DLI-supported startups are now doing this commercially. The next question for institutions is whether their curriculum produces graduates who can contribute to a tapeout — not just study Verilog.