Scale-up phase awaits semicon, EMS companies as Centre deepens play

"The coming year will be about functionalising the 2025 investments," Ashok Chandak, president of the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) and SEMI India, told ET.

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As VC exits pile up, 2026 will test fundraising prospects of independent funds

Data shared by executive search firm Longhouse shows the industry saw nearly two dozen high-profile departures and lateral moves during the year. The exits add to a growing list of general partners moving on from large funds, raising questions about whether their experience and track record will translate into solo fundraises at a time when limited partners are becoming increasingly selective.

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Louis Gerstner, former IBM CEO who revitalised 'Big Blue,' dies at 83

IBM ​chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced Gerstner's death ⁠in an email sent Sunday to employees, but did not provide a cause of death.

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Ola Electric’s market share halves in 2025 as legacy players tighten grip

The year 2025 marked a pivotal shift in India's electric two-wheeler market. After losing over half its market share, Ola Electric stepped down as market leader, with TVS Motor rising to take its place. Bajaj Auto thrived during this period, and Ather Energy alongside Hero MotoCorp proved their mettle as they captured increased market attention.

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Coupang founder Kim Bom apologises for data leak, pledges compensation

In response to the data breach, Coupang founder Kim Bom has issued a public apology. He reassured customers that the company is fully cooperating with authorities and has successfully reclaimed all compromised personal information.

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How company bets on bitcoin can backfire

Companies heavily invested in bitcoin are encountering turbulence as its value plummets. Share prices have taken a hit, raising alarms about possible insolvency. Some players leveraged loans to acquire bitcoin, now grappling with the urgent need to settle debts.

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Quick commerce platforms drum up sales, push deals ahead of New Year’s Eve to offset delivery strike & rush

Quick commerce platforms, including Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, Zepto, BigBasket and Amazon Now, have also started rolling out party-themed sections and targeted deals on soft drinks, snacks, mixers, disposable cups, decoration items and games.

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Adani to inaugurate centre of excellence in AI in Baramati on Sunday

Adani had visited Baramati, the home turf of the Pawar family, in 2022 to attend the inauguration of the Science and Innovation Activity Centre in the town, about 110 km from Pune. The relationship between Pawar and Adani goes back nearly two decades.

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Zepto IPO: Quick commerce platform makes confidential filing with Sebi, sources say

Quick commerce firm Zepto has filed draft papers with Sebi for a $1.3 billion IPO, people in the know told us. The Aadit Palicha-led company plans to raise most funds through fresh shares, with some stake sales by early investors. The Bengaluru-based firm, valued at $7 billion, aims to list in July-September quarter of 2026.

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As AI companies borrow billions, debt investors grow wary

Stock markets remain upbeat about artificial intelligence, but debt investors are far more cautious. New and smaller AI firms are being charged high interest rates on the money they borrow, indicating investors' scepticism when new, unproven AI businesses take on large debts. While big firms like Amazon borrow cheaply, riskier AI companies face rising yields and falling bond prices.

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Data centre surge reaches India as American tech giants invest billions

US tech giants are pouring tens of billions into Indian data centres as artificial intelligence use explodes. Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta see huge growth in a fast expanding population despite power, water and trade worries. India wants local servers for security and speed, and cities like Hyderabad are competing hard to host them.

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UP may become home to Teema’s technology park

Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn's chairman Young Liu is current chairman of Teema and is spearheading the initiative that aims to establish such hubs in the US, India, Mexico and Poland in the first phase. The association is said to be in talks with several other Indian states as well.

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Merchants crack QR code to secure loans from NBFCs

Non-banking finance companies (NBFC) such as Aditya Birla Finance (ABFL), L&T Finance, Poonawala Fincorp, and SMFG India Credit are among those extending credit to small businesses, harnessing the technology backbone offered by payment firms such as BharatPe, Paytm and PhonePe.

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Tesla Robotaxis are big on Wall Street but lagging on roads: Report

Tesla is encountering significant hurdles in its quest for driverless taxis. Competing with Waymo, a subsidiary of Google that boasts a substantial fleet and extensive city experience in places such as Austin, Tesla's rapid growth ambitions may come at a cost.

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Rise of microcompanionship: Social media 2.0 is changing the conversation

India’s creator economy is branching out beyond short videos and livestreams, quietly building a parallel income stream around paid conversations, voice chats, and virtual gifting — especially in smaller towns. A new crop of “micro-companionship” apps is gaining traction by monetising one-on-one and small-group interactions rather than mass reach.

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Apple's Tim Cook doubles Nike stake, endorses CEO Hill's turnaround push

As of December 22, Tim Cook held about 105,000 shares, according to the filing released on Tuesday.

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2025 Year in Review: Smaller seed investors reap bumper harvest on departure

While attention through the year was largely centred on marquee, bulge-bracket IPOs and billion-dollar secondaries involving large global funds, India-focused early-stage firms such as Kae Capital, 3one4 Capital, VenturEast, IndiaQuotient and AdvantEdge, among others, garnered significant returns in relative silence.

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Trump's AI hiring campaign draws interest from 25,000 hopefuls

​​The Trump ‌administration will use that list to recruit software and data engineers, in addition to other tech roles, said Scott Kupor, director of the U.S. Office ​of Personnel Management, in ​a post on X.

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AI DevOps firm Harness.io to ramp up India R&D hiring; eyes 1,000 staff in three years

The startup, led by Jyoti Bansal, founder of AppDynamics, which was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion in 2017, is using AI to streamline the entire DevOps lifecycle, cutting software delivery turnaround time across testing, security, deployment, operations, and cost optimisation.

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India’s bare PCB manufacturing set for 45% CAGR surge

The bare PCB market in India currently is worth $5 billion, with an 88% import dependence. Domestic production is expected to expand from $0.6 billion in fiscal 2024 to $3.8 billion by FY29, reducing the dependence on supplies from abroad to 69%, the financial services firm said in the report.

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Lawmakers want US to disclose any approvals of Nvidia H200 China licenses

President Trump this month said ‌he would allow sales of Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 chips to China, with the U.S. government collecting a 25% fee, and that the ​sales would help ​keep U.S. firms ahead of Chinese chipmakers ‌by ‍cutting demand for Chinese chips.

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Alphabet to buy clean energy developer Intersect in $4.75 billion deal amid AI push

Big Tech has ramped up investments in energy firms as ‌U.S. power grids ‌struggle to keep pace with the soaring electricity demand of generative AI amid an intensifying ‌race to capitalize on the booming technology.

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UPI surge stalls NPCI’s other retail payment modes

Regulatory data reveals that Immediate Payment System (IMPS), an inter-bank fund transfer mechanism, recorded 368 million transactions in November, compared to 407 million a year ago and 472 million in November 2023. It has seen a decline to 400-450 million transactions per month on average this year, down from nearly 500 million monthly transactions in 2023.

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Indigenous startup Digantara ventures into tracking missiles from space

Space debris and traffic monitoring has emerged as a key segment of the global space economy as companies launch more satellites in low Earth orbit for high-speed internet and Earth observation applications.

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Data breach case: US court approves Infosys McCamish's proposed $17.5 million settlement

A US court has officially sanctioned a settlement in class-action lawsuits against Infosys McCamish. The tech firm will disburse $17.5 million in light of a cybersecurity breach in 2023 that compromised the data of more than 57,000 clients, as highlighted by Bank of America.

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Elon Musk becomes first person worth $700 billion after court ruling on pay package

Elon Musk becomes first person worth $700 billion after court ruling on pay package

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AI chip firm Cerebras set to file for US IPO after delay, sources say

The company, which develops high-performance processors for artificial intelligence workloads, withdrew its prior IPO filing in ‌October, days ‌after announcing it had raised over $1 billion in a fundraising round that valued the ‌AI chipmaker at $8 billion.

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IIFL Fintech Fund acquires Rs 21 crore worth secondary shares in regtech startup Leegality

To date, Leegality has raised a total of $6.63 million across three rounds. Following the rollout of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, the document infrastructure startup has positioned itself as an early mover in DPDP adoption.

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Year in review: Startup funding flat in 2025 on early-stage AI reset

Indian startup funding barely moved the needle in 2025, even as dealmaking stayed busy beneath the surface. Total funding stood at $9.8 billion year-to-date, marginally lower than $10.1 billion in 2024, as gains in growth-stage rounds were offset by a sharp pullback in late-stage private capital.

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Speciale Invest launches Rs 1,400 crore fund for deeptech startups

Vishesh Rajaram, founding partner at Speciale Invest, said that while more investors are entering the deeptech ecosystem, most remain focussed on the early stages with small cheque sizes. “India does not have a deeptech problem at the seed stage. The real gap is growth capital. Many startups have de-risked science, but they still need capital to become self-sustaining institutions,” he said.

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IIT-Bombay, Vertiv partner to enhance cooling strategies for AI-powered data centres

This partnership aims to build solutions that address these fast-evolving thermal demands while creating a pipeline of industry-ready engineering talent, according to a statement.

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General Catalyst to ramp up investments in manufacturing, AI

Silicon Valley heavyweight General Catalyst is recalibrating its India playbook, pivoting towards manufacturing, defence, and deeptech under a new "global resilience" investment thesis, managing director Neeraj Arora told ET. The shift marks a clear move away from the firm's earlier emphasis on consumer internet.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teases 'really fun' launch amidst intensifying AI wars

Earlier this month, Altman reportedly declared an internal "code red" to accelerate improvements to ChatGPT to retain its competitive edge. In an internal memo, Altman accepted that Google’s recent successes in AI could “create some temporary economic headwinds for our company”. Altman assured colleagues that OpenAI is “catching up fast”, and would emerge on top in the AI race.

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Haircare brand Moxie Beauty raises $15 million in round led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Existing investors Fireside Ventures and angel investors, including Navin Parwal and Sangeet Agarwal, cofounders of Mokobara, participated in the funding round. The fresh capital will be used for product innovation, research, hiring talent, expanding distribution channels, and content creation for social media.

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AI-led work stands out as Capgemini India’s growth driver: Capgemini India MD

The company is placing its business operations and planned integration with WNS at the centre of this strategy, driven by demand from global capability centres (GCCs) and enterprises. Capgemini announced to buy WNS earlier this year for $3 billion.

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With Nvidia's second-best AI chips headed for China, the US shifts priorities from security to trade

The US has allowed Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China in return for a share of the profits. This shift weakens export controls and risks boosting AI-driven warfare worldwide. Allies like Australia now face hard choices between economic ties, security commitments, and trust in US leadership.

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These travel influencers don't want freebies. They're AI.

Travel brands are using AI-made influencers to promote destinations cheaply, quickly and with full control. These digital figures look real online, gain thousands of followers, and blur truth, while worrying human creators. As AI improves, travellers may trust social media less, as ads replace lived experience and personal voice online.

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Why SpaceX IPO plan is generating so much buzz

After two decades reshaping spaceflight, Elon Musk plans to float SpaceX on the stock market. The record-breaking IPO could raise over $30 billion, valuing the firm at $1.5 trillion, and fund Mars ambitions. Yet public scrutiny may challenge its bold, risk-heavy culture, and investor pressure could reshape future innovation and strategy choices.

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Oracle denies report on OpenAI data center delays

Oracle denied on Friday a media report that it was delaying OpenAI-related data centers, following investor worries over its debt-fueled AI infrastructure buildout. Shares of Oracle, which had fallen 3.6% following the report, pared some losses to be down by 2.8% in afternoon trading.

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Intel has tested chipmaking tools from firm with sanctioned China unit, sources say

Chipmaker Intel, has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions.

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AI to place India among NTT Data’s top five markets

NTT Data sees sustained demand for IT infrastructure growth, driven by AI workloads and it plans to invest heavily beyond its Rs 2,400-crore Bengaluru data centre project and an overall Rs 4,000-crore outlay in the city. The company will also scale less capital-heavy services around applications, cloud and business process transformation in the country.

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Meta partners with ElevenLabs to power AI audio across Instagram, Horizon

ElevenLabs said the collaboration will enable Meta to dub Reels in local languages, generate music, and create character voices in Horizon. The company added that its voice library now includes more than 11,000 voices across over 70 languages.

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OpenAI's latest model GPT 5.2 out with Instant, Thinking & Pro versions

Available within OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, the latest model can create spreadsheets and presentations, decode images, write code, and even understand long context, the company said.

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Karnataka govt tables bill empowering officials to order takedown of online hate crime content

The opposition BJP has strongly protested the bill. The bill, which has invoked provisions from the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Information Technology Act, 2000, seeks to prevent the dissemination, publication, or promotion of hate speech and crimes, prescribe punishment for such crimes, and provide compensation to victims.

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NTT Data taps Bratin Saha as CEO of new AI arm AIVista in Silicon Valley

Saha has a PhD in computer science from Yale University. He brings deep expertise in AI, infrastructure, platforms, and solutions and specialises in scaling new businesses and ecosystem relationships.

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Retail investors to drive India’s MF, equity assets past Rs 550 lakh crore by 2035; F&O losses prompt shift to long-term investing: Report

The report, ‘How India Invests 2025’, said a doubling of household penetration of mutual funds from the current 10% to around 20%, rising systematic investment plans (SIP) ticket sizes, and investor onboarding beyond the top 30 cities, will deliver much of this expansion.

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ICC on a sticky wicket as JioStar seeks to exit deal

In a surprising turn of events, JioStar has communicated to the ICC that it must retract from its media rights contract for cricket events, primarily due to major financial challenges. This development has prompted the ICC to scout for alternative partners to secure rights for future tournaments.

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ET in the Valley: AngelList rethinks India play as new rules impact investing

Despite operational complexities India remains an important market for AngelList, Kohli said, adding that with a surge of AI and deep-tech activity many Indian founders are now splitting time between India and the US to access customers and capital. Regulatory complexity aside, the talent pipeline from India is exceptional especially in technical and product leadership, Kohli told ET.

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Apple rocked by executive departures, with chip chief at risk of leaving next

In just the past week, Apple’s heads of artificial intelligence and interface design stepped down. Then the company announced that its general counsel and head of governmental affairs were leaving as well. All four executives have reported directly to chief executive officer Tim Cook, marking an exceptional level of turnover in Apple’s C-suite.

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After fine against X, Musk says EU 'should be abolished'

Following a high-profile probe seen as a test of EU resolve to police Big Tech, the social media platform owned by the world's richest person was slapped with a fine of 120 million euros ($140 million) on Friday for breaking the bloc's digital rules.

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SFO Tech mulling Rs 2,270 crore electronic components plant in Tamil Nadu

The electronics manufacturing services firm, the flagship company of the NeST Group, is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on the project with the Tamil Nadu government at the TN Rising Conclave in Madurai on Sunday.

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Indian startups entering global markets to shield operational tech from cyberthreats

India is becoming a key player in global operational technology security. The nation has launched its first comprehensive OT security testbed. This facility allows companies to test products across the entire industrial process. A new wave of Indian OT security startups is gaining traction internationally. India's neutral geopolitical stance aids these companies in global competition.

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Meesho’s 79X IPO subscription one of highest among new-age companies

QIBs bid for more than 120 times the shares of the ecommerce marketplace allocated to them, while retail investors subscribed to the book 19 times. Meesho’s Rs 5,421 crore offering will value it at Rs 51,535 crore on a post-money basis. The company is raising Rs 4,250 crore in fresh capital through the IPO. By comparison, omnichannel beauty retailer Nykaa's Rs 5,350 crore IPO was subscribed 52 times, and at-home services platform Urban Company's Rs 1,900 crore share sale was subscribed 104 times.

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Google enhances Search with follow-up questions; tests AI Mode, AI Overview merger

In a video on X demonstrating the feature, which will be rolled out first on mobile devices, Robby Stein, Google’s vice president of products, shared a travel-planning scenario involving his children, aged four and six. He asked Search for advice on what to prioritise when packing to ensure a smooth trip.

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Zepto rolls outs pan-India supply chain automation

Zepto has fully automated its backend supply chain operations across India. Over the past year, this initiative has enabled the processing of 2.5 million FMCG units every day, resulting in a remarkable 45% increase in outbound manpower efficiency and promising notable cost reductions annually.

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Nvidia servers speed up AI models from China's Moonshoot AI and others tenfold

The data comes as the AI world has shifted its focus from training AI models, where Nvidia dominates the market, to putting them to use for millions of users, where Nvidia faces far more competition from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices and Cerebras.

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New data law spurs huge spike in cyber insurance demand

Insurers said they are seeing a 20-25% increase in demand for cyber insurance, turning it from an optional add-on to a necessary tool for compliance, as penalties under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act for a data fiduciary's failure to implement security safeguards could go up to Rs 250 crore, 50 times higher than before.

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AWS says custom AI chip line becomes multibillion-dollar business, unveils plans for Trainium 4

Speaking at the company’s annual event, AWS re:Invent 2025 in Las Vegas, CEO Matt Garman said that Trainium is already a multibillion-dollar business, and that 1 million Trainium chips have been deployed so far.

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Manufacturing is moving from static to hyper-flexible automation

Cedrik Neike, CEO, Siemens Digital Industries, tells Himanshi Lohchab that India needs to leapfrog manufacturing. If it copies traditional models, it will not be able to catch up.

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The big debate: Is AI a bubble?

There is palpable tension with circular deals and debt funding doing the rounds but tech honchos are certain that AI is here to stay, write Surabhi Agarwal & Himanshi Lohchab.

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Tesla new car sales in Italy rebound in November after falling for six months

Tesla's new car registrations in Italy bounced back in November after six straight months of decline, posting a 58% year-on-year increase, data from the Italian transport ministry showed on Monday.

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New-age firms rejig boards fast to plug IPO gaps: Longhouse

Indian startups preparing for IPOs are rapidly overhauling boards, hiring independent directors and boosting diversity, often within six months of filing draft prospectuses. A Longhouse study shows most appointments focus on regulatory, financial, and strategy expertise, with limited sector specialists and only modest gains in gender diversity across new-age companies.

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