US President Joe Biden seems on as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks throughout a gathering with senior officers and CEOs of American and Indian corporations, within the East Room the White House in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
The CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft bought a wholesome does of facetime with the chief of India this week, who was within the U.S. to satisfy with President Biden in addition to different political and business leaders.
The tech firm execs spent over an hour with Prime Minister Narendra Modi contained in the White House on Friday, discussing alternatives and challenges in investing in India. Earlier within the week, Modi met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
After the assembly concluded on the White House, Apple CEO Tim Cook advised CNBC that India represents a “huge opportunity.” When requested if Apple would proceed increasing there, he pointed to the 2 retail shops the corporate opened in India earlier this yr.
It was the primary state go to to the U.S. for Modi, who turned prime minister in 2014. Following Friday’s assembly, the White House mentioned Google shall be working with the Indian Institute of Science on open sourcing of speech knowledge for synthetic intelligence fashions.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was additionally in Washington for the occasion. Two folks with information of the matter mentioned Altman and Modi mentioned alternatives to collaborate on AI.
Hemant Taneja, CEO of enterprise capital agency General Catalyst, attended the roundtable. Ahead of the assembly, he shared with CNBC his intentions to seek out alignment on efforts to streamline expertise switch guidelines between the U.S. and India, which has overtaken China because the world’s most-populous nation. U.S. relations with China have turn into more and more strained prior to now few years.
We are in a digital chilly battle with China, and this strategy will in the end foster an environment of elevated cooperation,” Taneja mentioned.
Large semiconductor corporations like Micron and Applied Materials used Modi’s visit as an opportunity to announce plans to make significant investments India. Micron is aiming to open a facility in Modi’s home state of Gujarat as the broader chip industry looks for ways to diversify its supply chain. Lam Research revealed plans to train 60,000 Indian engineers.
Access to highly skilled labor and outdated labor laws are challenges for American businesses when it comes to staffing up in India.
“U.S. corporations in India have had difficulties over time with regulatory uncertainty in addition to challenges in relocating or terminating staff,” said Kenneth Juster, former U.S. Ambassador to India. Juster, who’s now a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he remains optimistic, adding that India has pledged to ease the process for foreign companies to do business there.
WATCH: Big tech CEOs meet with Biden
Source: www.cnbc.com