India, Sept. 27 -- A semiconductor is not a processor, graphics chip, or memory module. It is the material that makes all of them possible. Silicon occupies a unique position between conductors, which allow electricity to flow freely, and insulators, which block it. By carefully changing its electrical properties, engineers create billions of microscopic switches called transistors. Those switches form the foundation of every CPU, GPU, smartphone, vehicle controller, and AI accelerator. Modern processors contain billions of transistors, and the semiconductor industry exists to manufacture them at extraordinary precision.

Transistors are now so small that they can no longer be carved mechanically. Instead, manufacturers print them using p...