- Nothing spins off CMF as a standalone Indian company.
- New CMF entity will be majority Indian-owned, locally managed.
- Pei emphasizes India requires advanced electronics R&D for growth.
- CMF aims for 100 million annual phones, influencing supply.
Nothing CEO Carl Pei has announced plans to turn CMF into a standalone Indian company, marking a major shift in the smartphone brand’s strategy for the country. The new entity will be majority owned by Indian shareholders and headquartered in India, while Nothing will retain a stake and continue as a partner.
Pei outlined the move in a letter titled “India Is Inevitable”, arguing that India’s next phase in consumer electronics must go beyond manufacturing and focus on research and development, engineering and intellectual property.
CMF To Become An Indian Company
According to Pei, CMF will be separated from Nothing and established as an independent company in India. The business will have its own team and R&D operations in the country, while Nothing’s existing engineering expertise, operating system capabilities, supplier relationships and global brand experience will remain part of the partnership.
“I’m not Indian. I’m a Swede who spent eight years in China and runs a company from London. So let me be plain about why I care. I’ve seen this happen once. I know what it takes. And we’ve already built the pieces that are missing. We think we can be India’s partner in this. So we’re spinning CMF out of Nothing into a standalone Indian company: majority Indian owned, headquartered in India, with its own team and R&D in the country. Nothing stays as a shareholder and partner. CMF becomes Indian.”
Pei believes India has already established many of the foundations needed to develop a globally recognised consumer electronics company. He points to the country’s large smartphone market, young population and expanding technology talent base as key advantages.
Pei Says India Must Move Beyond Smartphone Manufacturing
The Nothing CEO also drew a comparison with India’s smartphone industry a decade ago. He noted that domestic brands once accounted for a substantial portion of smartphone sales in India, but struggled to maintain their position as international companies brought products with more advanced engineering and technology.
“Within two years, foreign brands arrived with what the domestic ones lacked: real engineering.”
Pei argues that manufacturing alone cannot create sustainable global electronics brands. According to him, companies need to control critical parts of product development, from industrial design and camera systems to software, thermal engineering, antennas and component development.
He described this capability as “real R&D” and said it is what can allow companies to differentiate themselves beyond competing purely on price.
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Nothing Wants R&D To Become Part Of India’s Electronics Ecosystem
Pei’s letter also focuses heavily on the development of India’s broader electronics supply chain. He pointed to his experience working in Shenzhen and described how Chinese smartphone companies helped push suppliers to develop increasingly sophisticated components.
His argument is that Indian companies need to create similar demand for advanced engineering capabilities within the country. That, in turn, could encourage suppliers, engineers and technology companies to build expertise around domestic brands.
“That’s what real R&D does. It makes a better phone, and over time it builds the ecosystem around it.”
Pei said India has already made significant progress on local smartphone production, with 99% of phones sold in the country now manufactured domestically, compared with almost none a decade ago. However, he believes the next stage requires greater emphasis on intellectual property, product engineering and R&D.
CMF Could Target 100 Million Phones A Year
The proposed CMF spin-out is also tied to an ambitious long-term target. Pei describes 100 million smartphones annually as a critical scale at which a company can influence the wider supply chain rather than simply participate in it.
“100 million a year is the line between a brand and a platform.”
Pei also highlighted Nothing’s existing technology and product capabilities as the foundation for CMF’s next phase. He said Nothing develops its own Android-based Nothing OS, works directly with suppliers on components and has developed its own industrial design capabilities.
According to Pei, CMF was built on this foundation and became India’s fastest-growing smartphone sub-brand in 2025.
‘CMF Becomes Indian’
The announcement represents a significant change in how Nothing intends to position CMF in India. Rather than operating solely as a product line of a London-based company, CMF is expected to operate as an Indian company with Indian ownership, management and R&D.
Pei said the objective is not simply to sell more smartphones in India, but to use the country’s market, engineering talent and manufacturing ecosystem to build a consumer electronics company capable of competing globally.
“India will produce global consumer electronics companies. The only question is when, and that depends on who builds them.”
He concluded the letter by connecting the move with his earlier experience in China and his desire to participate in India’s next phase of electronics development.
“Last cycle, I moved to the country that was about to do this. This time I’d like to help build the cycle.”
