L&T Semiconductor Technologies, a fabless chip design company, is making strides towards bolstering the country’s semiconductor industry. Its portfolio of products targeting the automotive, industrial, and energy sectors keeps expanding. At present, they entertain over 50 customers and are running 11 active projects. The company believes it has paced ahead of its planned timeline for the current financial year.
CEO Sandeep Kumar highlighted ongoing efforts in CPU, GPU, neural processing units (NPU), and image signal processor (ISP) development. A GPU program is actively underway, but commercialization can take several years. A key area of focus for LTSCT is its automotive sector. To make sure that energy is spent in the right direction, efforts are in progress to identify chip design requirements driven by specific sector needs. With industrial sector projects gaining traction, revenue generation is anticipated in months. Customer interest in energy-related chips for applications in data centers, solar, wind, battery, and storage is strong; however, they are finalizing product specifications.
Starting this financial year, revenue generation should flow from industrial programs. Automotive and data center segments are expected to contribute in three to five years. LTSCT’s client base spans India (20-30%), Europe (30%), Japan (20%), and the United States (20%). Although the company is fabless at the moment, there are future plans to establish semiconductor manufacturing facilities once revenue targets between $50 million and $1 billion are met.
LTSCT has taken a contrasting approach, considering India’s traditional role as a manufacturing and assembly hub. The company aims to establish its position in the global semiconductor value chain by venturing into the relatively uncharted territory of owning semiconductor intellectual property through chip design.
