Co-founder and CEO of Nothing, Carl Pei, stated on social media on Monday that the Nothing company will not spin off CMF into an independent structure based in India.
The new organization will be controlled by Indian shareholders and will have its own team and research and development operations in India. However, Nothing will retain its stake and remain a partner in this company.
Carl Pei emphasized that CMF will cease to be merely a product line within the London company and will become an independent corporation registered and managed in India, with control held by the majority of Indian shareholders.
CMF was initially launched by Nothing as a more affordable consumer electronics brand. According to Pei, CMF relied on engineering and product developments created by Nothing itself and became the fastest-growing smartphone sub-brand in India in 2025.
The long-term goal for CMF, according to Pei, is to create a business capable of releasing 100 million phones annually. He noted that such a scale would allow the company to influence the electronics supply chain. '100 million a year is the boundary between a brand and a platform. Below that, you are a consumer of the supply chain. Above that, you are the reason for its existence,' he stated.
This move comes as India becomes the second-largest global hub for smartphone manufacturing. The company aims to create a consumer electronics brand that develops products and intellectual property directly in the country (India), rather than manufacturing goods designed elsewhere.
Pei added that the new company will bring engineering capabilities, an operating system, supplier relationships, and global branding experience from Nothing. In turn, India will provide the manufacturing base, talent pool, and domestic market. 'Being a partner means the company is Indian: owned in India, managed from India, designed in India,' he clarified.
Over the last decade, India has significantly expanded its electronics manufacturing capacity, especially in the smartphone segment. According to government and industry data cited by Pei, about 99 percent of smartphones sold in India are now manufactured domestically, whereas ten years ago there were almost none.
Nevertheless, Pei believes that the next stage of India's electronics industry development must go beyond mere assembly and manufacturing, moving towards product development and R&D. 'Manufacturing is the first step. The second step is R&D: the ability to set more complex tasks for suppliers and attract the entire value chain to the country,' he noted.
India has a domestic market that absorbs over 150 million smartphones annually and is increasingly positioning itself as an electronics export base. Pei reported that the country possesses the necessary manufacturing infrastructure and talent to support the next phase of the industry, but it lacks a major domestic consumer electronics brand around which a broader engineering ecosystem could develop.
