One quick thing: PM Modi huddles with Big Tech chiefs, India Inc on AI, IP 

In today’s newsletter:

• Quick commerce eats Zomato's lunch
• Zoho drops chip ambitions
• Creativity is India’s next boom, says Adobe CEO

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Eternal (formerly Zomato) has seen profits fall for two consecutive quarters.

Zomato’s profits nosedived 78% in Q4 FY25, falling to Rs 39 crore from Rs 175 crore in the same period last year.

• Revenue, however, remained strong, clocking a 64% year-on-year growth—from Rs 3,562 crore to Rs 5,833 crore

CEO Deepinder Goyal attributed the drop in profits and below-estimated growth to multiple factors: 

• The rise of packaged food delivery via quick commerce has slowed demand for restaurant food
  
  
• Consumers cutting back on discretionary spends
  
  
• Shortage of delivery partners, many of whom have shifted to quick commerce platforms

Zomato’s gross order value also grew just 16% YoY, sharply below the company’s estimate of a 20% growth. 

• The increase in competitive intensity has pushed Eternal’s management to prioritise growth over short-term profit goals, CFO Akshant Goyal told analysts

Eternal does, however, have a trump card that key rival Zepto doesn’t—domestic ownership.

• By becoming an Indian Owned and Controlled Company (IOCC), Blinkit, its quick commerce arm, can now operate as an inventory-holding entity, not just a marketplace

• This gives Eternal greater control over its operations and supply chain

Zepto, meanwhile, has been aggressively raising capital in recent months to boost domestic ownership and experiment with a similar model.

Dig deeper

In a twist to India’s semiconductor push, SaaS startup Zoho Corp has shelved its foray into chip manufacturing.

Zoho has suspended its year-long plan to enter semiconductor manufacturing with a proposed $700 million investment. 

What happened? Zoho was unable to find a suitable technology partner to guide the highly technical chipmaking process.

• The $700 million plan included a $400 million chip facility in Mysuru, Karnataka 

• The project had received state approval in December 2024 and aimed to create 460 jobs

Zoho’s chipmaking arm, Silectric Semiconductor Manufacturing, had even formed a board and started limited hiring activity. 

“Since this business is so capital intensive, it requires government backing,” founder Sridhar Vembu posted on X. “We wanted to be absolutely sure of the technology path before we take taxpayer money… We did not have that confidence in the tech.”

The move is the latest blow to India's push to position itself as a global chipmaking hub. 

• This comes days after Adani Group put its $10 billion chip plan on ice

India currently has no operational chip fabrication plant, despite the government’s push to attract semiconductor giants through subsidies and policy incentives. 

Find out more

Adobe is betting big on the future of India’s creative economy.

At the inaugural edition of WAVES 2025, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said that creativity, not software, will drive India’s next economic boom.

• Over a billion people have used Adobe software to empower creators, he said

• Narayen said that Adobe will support PM Modi in making India the world's creativity capital

In other news, India’s creative economy is getting a Launchpad.

• Adobe is one of the seven global tech giants, along with Google, Nvidia and others, to collaborate with the government to develop the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT).

• The institute will be on the lines of the IITs and IIMs for the media and entertainment sector
  
  
• A fund of Rs 400 crore was allocated by the Centre with the Maharashtra government providing land.

Dig deeper

More from our WAVES coverage:

• YouTube paid Rs 21,000 cr to Indian creators, Rs 850 cr more to be invested, says CEO Neal Mohan

• AI tools are dissolving the barriers between dreams and reality, says RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani

• ‘Tell your 1 billion untold stories to world’: PM Modi to youth 

• WAVES looks to further unlock the potential of Rs 2.5 lakh crore media and entertainment industry

• Meta raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast for 2025 to between $64 billion and $72 billion, up from the previous range of $60 billion to $65 billion, as the social networking giant looks to step up its AI spending amid intensifying competition.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang outlined the company's $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States. 

AI may be smarter, but it’s far from clean. 

In The Atlas of AI, Kate Crawford maps the hidden costs of our intelligent machines—from rare earth mines to the rise of surveillance states. 

• Crawford challenges us to rethink what AI really is—and who it truly serves

Check it out

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