Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon at Davos 2026 hails India as an electronics manufacturing hub amid global supply chain shift from China to Vietnam/India for risk mitigation and efficiency.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon offered a snapshot of how the global electronics industry is changing, and why India is moving into focus.
Speaking on January 22, Amon said companies are rethinking where they make their products after years of relying heavily on China. India and Vietnam, he noted, are increasingly seen as safer bets as businesses try to balance costs with rising economic and political risks.
He traced the long journey of electronics manufacturing, from Japan in the 1980s to Taiwan, South Korea and China, and now toward India. The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused severe chip shortages and shut down car and electronics factories, pushed companies to speed up this shift.
Although the United States remains at the forefront of chip design and innovation, Amon said it still depends on Asian factories to turn ideas into products. With semiconductors now powering everything from phones and cars to robots, where those chips are made has never mattered more.
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities Drive Diversification
When the pandemic disrupted factories and supply chains, companies learned a costly lesson: relying on a single country for manufacturing can quickly become a liability.
That shock has pushed firms to spread production across countries such as India and Vietnam, aiming to strike a balance between efficiency and stability. Qualcomm says India, in particular, is seeing a wave of electronics manufacturing investment, driven by government incentives and a deep pool of skilled workers.
India’s production-linked incentive schemes and plans for new semiconductor fabs by Foxconn, Vedanta and Tata are helping the country move closer to becoming a serious chip manufacturing contender. Global brands, including Apple and Samsung, have already expanded assembly operations there.
According to Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, building products across multiple manufacturing bases allows companies to move faster while reinforcing the United States’ leadership in chip design and advanced technology.
Historical Migration Parallels New Wave
What is happening to China today has happened before. In the 1980s, manufacturing began to move out of Japan, spreading across the rest of Asia even as innovation stayed rooted in the United States. A similar pattern is now unfolding as companies rethink their dependence on China.
India is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift. Electronics exports touched $29 billion in FY25, growing 50% from the previous year. The government is betting big, aiming to scale exports to $300 billion by 2030 through a ₹100,000-crore production-linked incentive programme.
As geopolitical tensions between the US and China deepen and subsidies multiply, global manufacturers are increasingly turning to India and Vietnam as their next manufacturing bases.
US Challenges and India Opportunities
Cristiano Amon sees two very different talent stories unfolding across the world. In the United States, he said, pressure on universities and tighter immigration rules are making it harder to build the next generation of tech talent. In contrast, India is drawing investment and creating jobs as demand for AI and semiconductor skills continues to grow.
That shift is being reinforced by a broader global boom in connected technologies. As India expands its digital infrastructure and renewable energy capacity, it is increasingly seen as a natural base for manufacturing and innovation.
For Qualcomm, whose strategy is centred on 5G and artificial intelligence, Amon said India’s direction fits neatly with where the global technology industry is headed.
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