India is witnessing a new wave in the electronics industry. With the announcement of OSAT facilities in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Assam, the country is waving a green flag for semiconductor development. This momentum has prompted several startups to explore a segment that had, for a time, been overshadowed by the noise surrounding AI, high-performance RAM and processing power: the fabless power semiconductor market.

The first wave of startups included iVP Semiconductor, founded by Raja Manickam of Tessolve, and Sagar Semiconductors, led by Kedar Reddy. Both are focused on the discrete power semiconductor space. However, the margins in the discrete power space, as seen with companies like Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, remain a concern—something long-time industry insiders will recall from the Fairchild days.

Enter Cyient Semiconductors—the latest entrant, but with a distinct positioning. Unlike its peers, this newly launched subsidiary of Cyient is not in the discrete game. Instead, the company aims to carve a space alongside companies like Texas Instruments (TI) and Monolithic Power Systems (MPS), focusing on analog mixed-signal ASIC solutions that drive and complement external discretes—not replace them.

From its beginnings as an engineering services company nearly three decades ago, Cyient has made significant strides in electronics product development. In 2023, it established Cyient DLM, an electronics manufacturing solutions provider. Two years later, in 2025, managing director Krishna Bodanapu announced the formation of Cyient Semiconductors, a dedicated subsidiary focused on providing turnkey ASIC solutions for power applications. Led by CEO Suman Narayan, Cyient Semiconductors is positioning itself to serve industrial and automotive customers in North America, Europe and beyond.

In an exclusive conversation with EE Times, Narayan revealed the rationale behind setting up a standalone semiconductor subsidiary. “Semiconductors [are] going to be a $2 trillion market soon, by 2032,” he said. “Silicon dances at a different rhythm. If you want to build a resilient business model, you have to build it very differently from a services company mindset.”

India as the epicenter

While Cyient Semiconductors will maintain design centers and acquired talent across Belgium (AnSem acquisition), the Netherlands and the United States, India will remain its operational nucleus.

“India is going to be the majority of where we do all of our ASIC development,” Narayan said. “The IP blocks can come from other places, but India is where we are going to stitch everything together from specifications to tape-out, validation, and go all the way to production testing.”

This vertically-integrated model includes post-silicon validation platform partnerships with Emerson (formerly NI) and in-house final testing facilities located in Germany to control quality and delivery timelines.

The company’s primary targets for custom ASIC solutions include industrial, data center and automotive markets with a huge focus on power efficiency—a growing concern in North America and Europe as energy costs and environmental regulations tighten.

“Our focus is primarily on power ASICs. Data centers are running at 100 megawatts—every one percent efficiency gain is a half a million dollar saving,” Narayan noted. “Robots alone account for about eight percent of power usage in manufacturing today.”

Growing IPs and ‘great’ partnerships

With a portfolio of over 600 ready-to-use IP blocks, primarily in analog and mixed-signal domains thanks to its strategic acquisition in Belgium, Narayan believes that the company already holds a significant competitive advantage. Coupled with embedded MCU integration capabilities, Narayan believes that the company’s IP blocks would allow it to deliver “smart power solutions”.

“We have taped out about 40 ASICs and shipped 5 million units so far,” he said.

In addition to ASIC design, Cyient Semiconductors is aiding customers unfamiliar with the semiconductor ecosystem to navigate complexities like multi-vendor foundry choices, OSAT options, inventory management and geopolitical supply chain risks.

“We have great foundry partnerships—TSMC is one of them—and a good supply chain, especially on the outsourced semiconductor assembly and test side that we have built. We walk customers through supply chain risks, whether they are choosing TSMC in Taiwan or Singapore, or OSAT vendors in Malaysia or China. It is not just about innovation—it is also about inventory and risk management.”

The road ahead

The company has aligned itself with the Indian government’s Design Linked Incentive and Chips-to-Startup schemes, particularly for R&D support. Narayan believes India is on the cusp of developing capable engineers along with full-fledged IP creation capabilities.

“Talent in India is coming up super-fast, especially in analog and mixed-signal design. But we still need to build a culture of IP development—that is what players such as imec and the Semiconductor Research Corporation have helped with,” he added.

Even as the company has a diverse portfolio of customers— ranging from startups to established OEMs—its long-term goal is to become a preferred custom silicon partner for industrial and automotive OEMs, especially in North America and Europe. Leaning on the back of its parent company’s legacy, Narayan positions Cyient Semiconductors against both startups and large standard-product players. “OEMs need partners who can supply silicon for 10 years, and that is what we are prepared to do,” he said.

“Today, the largest ASIC markets are still the US and Europe, but I believe India is going to rise very quickly,” Narayan added. “We are in the right place at the right time, and we are at a pivotal inflexion point in our growth journey.”

With high hopes for the future, Naryan concluded by defining the success metrics that he has set for Cyient Semiconductors.

“Am I building a sustainable business where profits grow faster than revenue? Are customers coming back to us because we are a trusted partner? That is how I define success,” he said.

Cyient’s decision to spin off a semiconductor arm was aimed at choreographing the rhythm of silicon—and with a sharp focus on power ASICs, global IP strength and Indian execution, Cyient Semiconductors is positioning itself as a serious contender in the fabless power semiconductor space.

From EETimes