On the 25th of November 2024, just five days before the placement drive began at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a new role was suddenly added to the student’s placement portal. Tech giant Microsoft was looking for a bunch of promising silicon hardware engineers. 

This was the first time Microsoft was hiring for this particular role. And it wasn’t just looking at the top tier IITs like IIT Madras. Students at IIT-ISM Dhanbad in Jharkhand, saw the same exact thing happen. 

Why, you may ask? One word. Nvidia. Until now, companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have been the most direct beneficiaries of the AI revolution. But the Nvidia monopoly in the AI chip market is preventing these tech companies from making as much money as possible. Microsoft wants to change that. 

That’s exactly where a team of freshly minted hardware engineers comes in. The company is hiring graduates who know hardware programming to test and design its own chips. 

Tune in. 

Tell us what you thought of this episode. You can text us your feedback on WhatsApp at +918971108379

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.