- Thursday, July 04, 2024
Vijay Nehra, secretary of the state’s science and technology department, told Reuters that they were in touch with several prospective investors, including Foxconn.
By: Shubham Ghosh
DAYS after Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn pulled out of a $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta, the western Indian state of Gujarat is in talks with it over a semiconductor plant, Reuters reported.
Vijay Nehra, secretary of the state’s science and technology department, confirmed to the news outlet that they were in touch with several prospective investors, including Foxconn. He added that Gujarat is “uniquely positioned to attract top chipmakers”.
Earlier this week, Foxconn withdrew from the project which was also planned for Gujarat, the home state of prime minister Narendra Modi whose government has taken a special interest to make India a semiconductor manufacturing hub.
The company later said that it would go for India chip incentives on its own and was looking for fresh partners.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
Apart from Vedanta-Foxconn, two other companies applied for the incentives in 2022 — Singapore-based IGSS Ventures and global consortium ISMC, which considers Israel’s Tower Semiconductor as a tech partner. So far, no deal has been sealed, Reuters reported.
Foxconn’s talks with Gujarat take place weeks after the US’s Micron Technology announced to invest up to $825 million in a semiconductor testing and packaging facility in the same state. The company said with the support of the Modi government and Gujarat, the total investment in the factory will be worth $2.75 billion.
The Indian government had approved the project prior to Modi’s state visit to the US last month.
