- Thursday, February 27, 2025
India eyes to establish itself as a semiconductor-manufacturing hub and high demand for chips means the local market will be worth $80 billion in another five years.
By: Shubham Ghosh
TOP officials from Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn and semiconductor firms Micron and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are set to attend a meeting in Gujarat, the home state of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, as his government continues to woo investments into the country’s fledgling chip industry, Reuters reported.
India eyes to establish itself as a semiconductor-manufacturing hub, competing with countries such as Taiwan, and high demand for chips means the local market will be worth $80 billion in another five years’ time, growing almost four times its current size of $23 billion.
However, the mission has still not tasted success. Two years ago, the Modi government unveiled a scheme worth $10 billion for domestic chip manufacturing, attracting interest from firms such as Foxconn and local conglomerate Vedanta Ltd. The Taiwanese company said the project was not going forward quickly enough.
None of the proposals have been successful.
Earlier this month, Foxconn pulled out of a joint venture with Vedanta Ltd that had aimed to invest $20 billion in India for a semiconductor unit.
On Friday (28), the prime minister will flag off the annual semiconductor conference (SemiconIndia) in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. The three-day event will see the presence of Foxconn chairman Young Liu, Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra and AMD chief technology officer Mark Papermaster.
Two other consortiums, including one involving Israel’s Tower Semiconductor, had unveiled plans to invest $3 billion each but the proposals have remained stalled.
The Indian government recently issued another invitation for firms to apply for chip incentives, the Reuters reported.
According to Reuters, while delegates from 23 nations will take part in SemiconIndia, India is yet to prove its credentials as a semiconductor manufacturer, with investors experiencing slow approvals from different levels of government and absence of a reliable supply chain for raw materials.
“India is still not a proven ground. Which explains the skepticism of global chip giants to come here and set shop,” Arun Mampazhy, a former India manager of US’s chipmaker GlobalFoundries was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
