PM Modi meets Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and other tech CEOs at the end of US visit
President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday opened the final day of the Indian prime minister’s four-day US visit with a meeting with top US and Indian executives as the leaders seek to strengthen cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing and space.
Leaders are focusing on the “Innovation Handshake,” a new initiative to address regulatory barriers impeding cooperation between the two countries and spur job growth in technology industries. emerging.
“Our countries are taking innovation and collaboration to the next level,” Biden told the group, which included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We will see more technological changes… in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 50 years.”
White House officials say India’s rich talent pool will be crucial in building more resilient supply chains and developing technology to tackle climate change. All of this comes as the administration is looking to take the US-India relationship to the next level in the face of a rising China in the Indo-Pacific.
Modi commended Biden for seeing “the possibility that India represents.”
“This is definitely a guarantee for a bright future,” Modi added.
As part of Mr. Modi’s state visit – the first visit by an Indian leader since Manmohan Singh in 2009 – the two leaders announced a number of major investments by companies with based in the United States into India.
Micron Technology has agreed to build a $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and testing facility in India, with Micron spending more than $800 million and India funding the rest. US-based Applied Materials will launch a new semiconductor hub for commercialization and innovation in India, and Lam Research, another semiconductor device manufacturing company, will begin the program. training for 60,000 Indian engineers.
On the space front, India has signed the Artemis Agreement, a blueprint for space exploration cooperation between countries involved in NASA’s lunar exploration plans. NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization have also agreed to a joint mission to the International Space Station next year.
Earlier this year, the two countries launched the Important and Emerging Technologies Initiative, paving the way for cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing, development of artificial intelligence and relaxation of export control rules. export. The initiative is crucial to the signing of an agreement, announced Thursday, allowing US-based General Electric to work with India’s Hindustan Aeronautics to produce jet engines. in India.
The following Friday, Modi was honored at a State Department luncheon hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken. He is also scheduled to give a speech to members of the Indian diaspora in the United States before leaving for Washington in the evening.
