Tech5: Modi, Biden announce plan for semiconductor fabrication plant in India

US President Joe Biden bids farewell to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of the Quadrilateral Summit at the Archmere Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 21, 2024. Image: Brendan Smialowski / AFP
 
India and the US have reached an agreement to work together on setting up a semiconductor fabrication plant in India, Bloomberg reported on September 23, citing a White House readout. This announcement follows a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden, on Saturday. Modi was in the US for the Quad Summit, which comprises Australia, India, Japan and the US.

It has been proposed that the plant will make infrared, gallium nitride and silicon-carbide semiconductors. Support for its establishment will come from India’s Semiconductor Mission as well as a “strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech Inc, and the US Space Force”, according to the report.

On Sunday, Modi also met Alphabet and Google CEO Sunder Pichai and Nvidia’s Co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang at a roundtable in New York, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Engineering, NDTV reports. The roundtable saw participation from leaders of companies specialising in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, and biotechnology.

TSMC, Samsung in talks to set up chip plants in UAE

Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest chip maker, and Samsung Electronics are considering chip making factories in the United Arab Emirates, which could provide a massive boost to AI chip manufacturing and investments in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported exclusively on September 22.

Top TSMC executives have visited the UAE recently and talked about a plant complex at par with some of the company’s largest and most advanced facilities in Taiwan. Similarly, senior leaders at Samsung have visited the UAE to discuss setting up semiconductor complexes, according to WSJ.

Letta, working on tech so AI can remember us, emerges from stealth

Letta, a much-anticipated startup from University of California, Berkeley, has emerged from stealth mode, unveiling an innovative technology that enables AI models to remember users and past conversations, TechCrunch reports. Originating from UC Berkeley’s Sky Computing Lab, Letta has secured $10 million in seed funding led by the venture capital (VC) firm Felicis' partner Astasia Myers. The company, founded by PhD students Sarah Wooders and Charles Packer, is backed by notable angel investors, including Google’s Jeff Dean and Hugging Face’s Clem Delangue, according to TechCrunch.

Letta is the commercial entity behind MemGPT, an open-source project that addresses a critical limitation in AI models—the lack of long-term memory. MemGPT, first described in a whitepaper by the founders of Letta, is seen to hold promise in tackling this problem.

Firstsource to acquire UK’s Ascensos in $56-million deal

Firstsource Solutions, a Mumbai-listed business process services provider, has agreed to acquire Ascensos Limited in the UK in a deal valued at GBP 42 million ($56 million), the Indian company said in a stock exchange filing on September 23.

Firstsource, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka group company, is making the acquisition via its wholly owned UK subsidiary. The acquisition is expected to help the Indian BPO company bolster its consumer experience tech capabilities in retail and ecommerce. Ascensos was founded in 2013, according to Tracxn, a private markets intelligence provider. It will operate as a separate business unit within Firstsource, keeping its existing brand and maintaining its Scottish HQ, according to a Firstsource press release.

Qure.AI raises $65 million in funding led by Lightspeed

Qure.AI, a Mumbai startup providing AI-based decision support for diagnostics, has raised $65 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and 360 ONE Asset Management, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Other participants included Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Kae Capital, alongside existing investors like Novo Holdings and Health Quad.

The investment will support Qure.AI's overseas expansion, further development of its AI models, and fund acquisitions. Founded in 2016, Qure.AI’s AI-based solutions help diagnose critical diseases at some 3,000 imaging sites in more than 90 countries. The company says its tech surpasses traditional methods in accuracy for diseases such as tuberculosis and lung cancer.