Nothing's ‘CMF becomes Indian’: CEO Carl Pei explains what this means for sub-brand

Nothing’s sub-brand CMF is set to become a standalone Indian company with majority Indian ownership. Nothing co-founder and CEO Carl Pei, in an X post, revealed that Nothing will retain a stake in CMF but will no longer be its parent company. CMF will be “majority Indian owned, headquartered in India, with its own team and R&D in the country,” Pei wrote in the post,

He further revealed that Nothing wants to build a global consumer-electronics company with India as its base. CMF will have greater focus on engineering, product development and its own R&D in India, but it will not assemble or manufacture devices there. India will play a bigger role for the brand in terms of designing and developing future Nothing products, rather than just producing them.

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Nothing’s bigger India bet

Pei highlighted that nearly 99% of smartphones sold in India are now manufactured domestically, but the majority of IP, product design and engineering work happens outside India. Now, CMF as a separate company is intended to create an India-based company that is owned, operated and engineered in India. Pei wants the company to eventually reach 100 million smartphones a year. “Manufacturing was step one. Step two is R&D,” Pei said.

“100 million a year is the line between a brand and a platform,” he wrote.

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He believes Japan, South Korea and China followed a similar path; they built large electronics manufacturing ecosystems and eventually produced globally recognised consumer-tech brands. He argues India is now at a similar stage. He highlighted that India needs more companies doing product design, engineering and R&D within the country, and CMF is said to become a vehicle for that ambition.

What happens to Nothing?

From the consumer front, there will be no changes in the product front, but CMF will go through major corporate-based changes. Nothing will continue to have an interest in CMF as a shareholder and partner, but it will have its own Indian team and R&D operations.

Nothing and CMF already have expertise in engineering, product design, and technology, and they want to expand those capabilities in India. It plans to develop and engineer products in India and then sell them in global markets. “Being a partner means the company is Indian: owned in India, run from India, engineered in India,” Pei wrote