Nobody is going to give it to us: Sridhar Vembu retorts to Rajan’s jibe at chip plans

CHENNAI: “At least we are trying. What are you doing?” is how Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu hit back at economist Raghuram Rajan’s criticism that India is not doing cutting-edge semiconductor work, defending the country’s efforts to build chip capabilities as a necessary first step towards more advanced technology.

Questioning what Rajan was recommending instead, Vembu said Zoho, for instance, had begun with 28-nanometre chip design and was working towards 12 nm. “As we gain experience, we will build the 12 nm. Then we will go rapidly towards it,” he said, arguing that India could not afford to wait for someone to hand it the latest technology. “Nobody is going to give it to us. We have to.”

He cited Maruti Suzuki’s early days, when India was criticised as a “screwdriver” manufacturing base, saying the country had since built an extensive automotive ecosystem, with more components and value addition taking place locally. Apple’s manufacturing operations in India had also faced similar criticism even as domestic supply chains began to emerge, he sought to point out.

Vembu also pointed to space start-up Skyroot, arguing that it should not be dismissed for not yet matching SpaceX. “This company is there on the path to grow into that. That’s what we should see,” he said.

The remarks come as Zoho completes 30 years and embarks on a major reinvention, moving beyond its horizontal software suite into vertical software-as-a-service (SaaS), while expanding its artificial intelligence and semiconductor capabilities.

The homegrown technology company on Wednesday launched Zia Chat, a unified AI interface for businesses, and announced its entry into vertical SaaS with seven industry-specific applications spanning retail, automotive, BFSI, healthcare, education, real estate and restaurants.

During an interaction with DT Next at Zoho’s Guduvanchery corporate office, Vembu said the strategy would be a key growth driver. Zoho is working with customers across diverse industries to co-create pre-customised solutions, reducing deployment time and costs.

The initiative has been underway for about 18 months and is now accelerating. Its dealer management system for Mercedes-Benz has been successfully deployed and is being rolled out globally, he said.

On AI productivity, Vembu compared programmers to handloom weavers facing mechanisation. “One way to adapt is you become designers… The other adaptation is you build your own machine looms. We are actually doing both,” he said, referring to industry-specific products and productivity-enhancing technology.

With Zia Chat, Zoho is adopting a model-agnostic approach, allowing it to incorporate more efficient models as they emerge.

Vembu’s longer-term ambition is “ubiquitous intelligence”, with smaller models running on devices rather than relying entirely on data centres. “In three-four years, we may not watch tokens at all,” he predicted. Zoho is building its own servers to offset rising memory costs. Its chip work includes 5G and optical-networking technologies.

On the back of 47% year-on-year revenue growth in India, it has also seen its products gaining traction in Japan and Canada and in Europe, including Germany.

It also remains committed to the Middle East despite war-related disruption, while its China operations are also performing well, Vembu said, responding to a query on growth opportunities.

On north India expansion, he said hiring is on hold until the reinvention is complete. “First we reinvent ourselves, then we grow in headcount,” Vembu said.

Predictions that artificial intelligence could lead to catastrophic outcomes are overstated, and a global pause in AI development is unlikely, he said while urging India to keep its strategic options open and invest heavily in foundational R&D across sectors

The privately-held and profitable Zoho employs over 19,000 people and serves over 150 million users globally across data centres it owns and operates.