Axiro’s focus is on building differentiated capabilities across select high-impact areas in connectivity (including wireless infrastructure and satellite communication), industrial and emerging applications, CG Power chairman Vellayan Subbiah told ET. “While we are starting with specific segments, the approach is to scale thoughtfully over time, expanding into adjacent opportunities as capabilities and market access deepen,” he said.
Subbiah said Axiro is a long-term strategic investment for the Murugappa Group and that semiconductors will become an important pillar of the group over time. The company will keep its approach disciplined, building capabilities step by step and using partnerships to deepen market access, he said.
Bengaluru-based Axiro’s chief executive, Naveen Yanduru, said the company’s roots go back to a business unit within (Japanese semiconductor company) Renesas and earlier IDT (which Renesas acquired).
Axiro acquired Renesas’ Radio Frequency (RF) components business and specialised IP last year.
The company chose Bengaluru for its RF talent pool, Yanduru said. It has major engineering activity at San Diego in the US and Bengaluru, and also works across other global sites, he said.
Axiro is already shipping millions of chips every month and has built a portfolio of around 200 commercialised chips over the past decade, he said. The company’s foundry relationships span GlobalFoundries, Tower Semiconductor, UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation), Winsemi (WIN Semiconductors), TSMC-related supply chains and Korean partners, the CEO said.
Yanduru argued that India has the ingredients to produce globally competitive fabless companies, citing engineering talent, scale and the existing ecosystem built by multinational design centres. He said Axiro wants to become a recognised global semiconductor brand over time, even if it takes a decade or two.
The company expects the government’s semiconductor policy framework to increasingly recognise the value of fabless design, not just manufacturing, he said, adding that Axiro is awaiting the next round of design-linked support through the design-linked incentive scheme 2.0.
The real value in semiconductors lies in product and IP creation, and Axiro sees itself as an Indian company developing Indian IP, Yanduru said.
The company may eventually broaden beyond RF and millimetre-wave products, either by internal development or strategic acquisitions, he said. For now, the focus remains on building differentiated design capabilities in selected segments where Axiro believes it can create value.
