In the 1990s, the San Francisco Bay Area looked more Indian than American. Despite being a baseball stronghold, large crowds often turned up to watch Indian-origin engineers play cricket.

“Even the teams were named ‘Malleswaram’ and ‘Jayanagar’ (popular Bengaluru neighbourhoods),” said Sanjay Palsamudram, the chief executive of chip-design-service firm 7Rays Semiconductors, recalling his US days.

Those engineers built the foundation of the chip and software ecosystem in the US then. Three decades later, as this diaspora returns with dreams and plans of building semiconductor ventures in their........

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