India can’t rely on IT services alone, must build deep tech or risk being locked out: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath

Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zerodha

• Nithin Kamath calls for strong domestic deep-tech for India's national security.
• He warns of strategic risks in foreign tech reliance, urges sustained support.
• Kamath urges government incentives for India's talent and startup ecosystem.

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Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Monday has warned that India must urgently build strong domestic deep-tech capabilities as technology increasingly becomes a matter of national security, saying self-sufficiency is now “necessary insurance”.

In a post on social media platform X,Nithin Kamath said global tech supply chains are being reshaped by geopolitics, with countries tightening controls on chips, critical minerals and advanced manufacturing equipment.

“Tech seems to be getting effectively nationalized. Starting from around 2020, we've seen an increase in export controls on things like chips, critical minerals, restrictions on advanced manufacturing equipment and various other trade restrictions. Supply chains have become a security issue for countries,” he wrote.

Kamath cautioned that India can no longer depend only on exporting IT services. “We're no longer in a world where India can be okay with just exporting IT services. If we don't build domestic deep tech capabilities, we'll be locked out when it matters most. Self-sufficiency has become necessary insurance,” he said.

Highlighting the maturity of India’s startup ecosystem, he said local talent already exists to build technologies that the country currently imports. “India's startup ecosystem has come a long way. We have genuine local talent that can build a lot of what we currently import. They just need the right support,” he noted, adding that the government’s recent push for deep tech is “a step in the right direction”.

Tech seems to be getting effectively nationalized. Starting from around 2020, we've seen an increase in export controls on things like chips, critical minerals, restrictions on advanced manufacturing equipment and various other trade restrictions. Supply chains have become a…

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) February 9, 2026

Kamath also pointed to how artificial intelligence could disrupt asset-light business models. “If AI can pretty much produce all of the software, asset-light models will get hit. The next decade belongs to atoms, not just bits,” he said, citing rising investments in data centres, defence systems, batteries, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing.

On venture capital trends, Kamath said easy opportunities in e-commerce, lending and payments have largely dried up. “In the last decade most of VC investments went into eCommerce, lending, and payments. Those segments have now matured and the easy opportunities are gone. For deep tech, it's still day one,” he said.

Drawing lessons from China, Kamath said its success was driven by intense domestic competition, industrial clustering and strong links between universities and industry. “Companies choose to manufacture in China because everything they need to manufacture is within a few miles,” he wrote, adding that such density enables rapid prototyping and innovation.

He argued that India needs government procurement guarantees, patient capital and stronger pathways from academic research to commercialization. “Brilliant PhDs can't find the capital or institutional support to build a prototype, let alone turn them into businesses,” he said.

While welcoming government backing for deep tech, Kamath stressed that funding alone is not enough. “We need R&D tax credits, subsidies, first-purchase guarantees, streamlined approvals and other incentives. All of this has to be sustained across decades, not election cycles,” he said.

Warning that dependence on foreign technology is a strategic risk, he concluded: “Without domestic deep tech capability, we stay dependent on others for critical infrastructure. That dependence is vulnerability… If we build the clusters, invest in education, fund the R&D, bridge academia to industry, and let states compete to create ecosystems, we get more than self-sufficiency. We become a deep tech exporter.”