Tata Sons says its long-term bet on chip manufacturing will remain intact

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Tata Sons chip manufacturing long-term bet

Highlights

Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said long-term demand for semiconductor chips will remain strong, even if India's manufacturing expansion is slow.
Blackstone COO Jonathan Gray said the company will increase investment in sectors such as data centers, robotics, and defense, with a particular focus on India.
Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested that, in the current global environment, governments can increase subsidies/incentives for national capabilities through a de-risking strategy.

This article was translated from the original. Read the original version by our correspondent here.

Chip strategy at the New Delhi forum

According to Forbes India, speaking in New Delhi at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026, Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said semiconductor chips will remain important for a long time, regardless of how quickly India begins producing them at scale. Referring to Tata Electronics' chip manufacturing efforts for automotive, artificial intelligence, and other applications, he said that meeting targets in two or three years is not the main issue; the fundamental point is that chips will continue to be needed.

He said the company will continue to assess demand and financial viability for the initiative. According to him, it is difficult to develop fully clear financial assessments in the current uncertain environment.

Chandrasekaran also said that the world is still fully grasping the technological transformation driven by AI, but its long-term impact will be very powerful. According to him, operating solely for efficiency is not the right approach in a volatile environment, and resilience and efficiency are not mutually exclusive.

He said that if systems are made resilient in an unpredictable environment, this ultimately translates into optimized efficiency. Citing challenges such as supply chain disruptions, air crashes, and cyberattacks within the group, he said the group has maintained deliveries and margins despite these shocks.

Focus on resilient businesses and investment in India

Other industry experts at the forum also said that, amid technological and fiscal disruptions, the path to progress lies in building businesses that do not rely on a single geographic region. Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Gray said technology is among the biggest existential risks, while the lack of fiscal stability among Western governments is also a significant risk.

Gray said emerging markets have been more responsible in many cases, and this is reflected in volatile bond markets. He also said Blackstone wants to continue betting on sectors powering electricity, data centers, autonomous vehicles, robots, and other technological advances, while planning to increase investment in self-reliant technology sectors such as defense and life sciences.

Former UK Prime Minister and MP Rishi Sunak said the current global environment gives governments an opportunity to provide subsidies or incentives for resilience, but caution is necessary. According to him, politicians often look for opportunities to erect barriers to protect local producers, so the idea of de-risking rather than decoupling is more useful, especially in the context of prioritizing national capacity in critical sectors.

Gray said that with new infrastructure, India will grow faster than any other major economy in the world, and Blackstone is preparing to deploy more capital in the country over the long term. According to him, the impact will be seen not only in India's growth but also prominently in areas such as human health.

The biggest challenge facing businesses in the current AI boom is to identify real business utility apart from hype and FOMO—this was highlighted in our previous report. We explained that, rather than joining the race to build expensive “sovereign LLMs,” it is more practical for India to develop regulated and scalable solutions tailored to local needs and based on low-cost/free models, as AI initiatives adopted without a clear strategy and ROI can increase risks related to costs, security, and long-term sustainability.

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