Aheesa Unveils Vihaan‑I, India’s First Indigenous Broadband Chip, at Semicon India 2026 with Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Backed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY)’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme

Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless semiconductor company, unveiled Vihaan-I, India’s first indigenously designed broadband networking chip, in the presence Union Minister for Electronics & IT Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw at Semicon India 2026, at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi.

Vihaan-I’s journey is tied to two of the nation’s defining dates. The chip was taped out on Republic Day, 26 January 2026, and achieved first-pass silicon success on Independence Day, 15 August 2026, validating India’s semiconductor ambitions.

“Unveiling Vihaan-I in the presence of Union Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is steering India's semiconductor mission, was a proud moment for everyone at Aheesa. Vihaan-1 is proof that a Viksit Bharat can use advanced technology and design it,” said Sridharan Mani, Founder and CEO, Aheesa Digital Innovations.

"With Vihaan-I, we have a working silicon designed in India, by an Indian team, for India's networks. Our focus is now on getting this chip into the hands of India's broadband and telecom equipment makers,” Saket Singh, Director & Chief Growth Officer, Aheesa Digital Innovations.

Vihaan-I is India’s first home-designed chip for broadband and fibre networks. It brings the core functions of the internet equipment found in homes and offices onto a single Indian-designed chip, built on the open-standard RISC-V architecture and powered by the indigenous VEGA processor developed by C-DAC. It serves as a Made-in-India alternative to the imported silicon that powers most of the country’s telecom and broadband networks today.

At Semicon India 2026, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw set out the six pillars of Semicon 2.0, with chip design named as the first pillar. Vihaan-I was among the Made-in-India chips he spotlighted, a working example of the design-led, indigenous milestone the mission is built to produce, and of the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of designing strategic technology at home. Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw on Vihaan-I: https://x.com/AshwiniVaishnaw/status/2100302059757339086

Path to commercialisation

With Vihaan-I’s silicon now validated, Aheesa is moving decisively from design to market. The company has signed partnerships across the chip’s path to deployment including a packaging MoU with Optilink Networks, which will support product development from prototyping through to packaging and the joint development of broadband customer equipment built on Vihaan-I. They have also signed a distribution partnership with The Zigma Technologies India. Aheesa is now preparing for commercialisation targeted for early 2027, and expects the Vihaan roadmap to extend across the broadband, telecom and cybersecurity domains that form its core focus.

About Aheesa

Aheesa™ is a DPIIT-recognised fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Chennai. Established in 2021, Aheesa™, develops indigenous semiconductor and networking technologies for telecom, broadband, cybersecurity, and edge computing applications, with a vision to dream beyond boundaries. Aheesa™ offerings include System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions, networking processors, broadband access technologies, firmware, operating systems, and integrated hardware-software platforms for telecom and networking infrastructure. Aheesa™ has also been recognised under the Government of India’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme under the Semicon India program. Further, in 2026, Aheesa™ secured an investment from Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC) through the Tamil Nadu Emerging Sector Seed Fund (TNESSF), reinforcing its commitment to making it happen through engineering-led execution and long-term technology capability building.

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Website: www.aheesa.com