India Emerges as a Global Semiconductor Player
One of the biggest names in Indian industry, the Tata Group, has jumped headfirst into semiconductor manufacturing. Tata Electronics was approved for two plants this Feburary; a semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC), and a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Morigaon, Assam. Its investments are ₹91,000 crore and ₹27,000 crore respectively. The company broke ground for construction of both projects shortly after receiving approvals, and mass production in Dholera is expected to commence by 2026. This venture will target the automotive, telecom, defence, and consumer electronics markets, with customers reportedly already lined up.
Tata Electronics reportedly signed Tesla as a customer for chip manufacturing this April. This could also be a big step for the American EV giant in localising its own operations, ahead of setting up its own plant to manufacture cars here. A strategic alliance signed in September with Analog Devices to explore manufacturing opportunities is another feather in the Tata Group’s cap.
And that’s not all – the Tata conglomerate has also massively ramped up its OEM/ODM business, acquiring a majority stake in Pegatron’s Indian operations manufacturing plant and seeking to develop a local supply chain. In addition to its own plant in Tamil Nadu, this deal made Tata Electronics a huge part of Apple’s global iPhone supply chain. The company also reportedly held talks this year with major PC companies including HP and Dell to manufacture their laptops in India.
Unfortunately, a massive fire at a Tata-owned plant in Tamil Nadu in September this year brought operations to a halt, and will likely impact the company’s plans in the short term.
A third project approved at the same time is a chip manufacturing plant, backed by India’s CG Power, a unit of Crompton Greaves, along with Japan’s Renesas Electronics and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics. It will come up in Sanand, Gujarat thanks to a ₹7,600 crore investment. All three projects are expected to create thousands of jobs and boost multiple Indian manufacturing sectors.
The government of Maharashtra approved another huge semiconductor industry deal this year; a partnership between the Adani Group and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor (which was in discussions to be acquired by Intel in 2023). This proposal, valued at nearly ₹84,000 crore, is to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant at Taloja, near Mumbai. There is no timeline yet for this plant to be operational.
Another name that has popped up multiple times over the course of 2024 is Kaynes Semicon. This engineering, OEM and hardware testing firm, has been eyeing expansion into semiconductor manufacturing and has been approved to set up its own unit in Sanand, Gujarat. It is reportedly targeting an IPO soon, and has already signed customers for its forthcoming semiconductor assembly and test services. The company also opened a new electronics assembly plant in Hyderabad this August. If that wasn’t enough, it has partnered with California-based DigiLens Inc to develop augmented reality (AR) display components for commercial and industrial markets, and acquired another company, Digicom Electronics, which has an established presence in the American prototyping and manufacturing industry.
Another Indian industry giant, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has backed a new subsidiary called L&T Semiconductor Technologies, and has committed to investing $300 million in India to promote semiconductor design. An MoU signed with India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is aimed at researching and promoting made-in-India semiconductor intellectual property for multiple applications.
Samsung opened a new semiconductor R&D office in Bengaluru this February, and various other initiatives such as setting up a new Linguistics Lab focused on AI and machine learning with Garden City University, Bangalore, and a chip design programme for high school students in partnership with IIT-Bangalore to nurture skills in future talent.
Qualcomm announced in October that most of its engineering staff is now in India. A new design centre in Chennai was inaugurated in March, and will specialise in wireless connectivity technology including 6G systems. That came shortly after announcing plans to invest $1 billion in the Indian semiconductor ecosystem.
Here are a few other highlights of India’s semiconductor industry in 2024, in no particular order:
- NXP Semiconductors will boost its R&D presence in India with a US$1 billion investment.
- RRP Electronics inaugurated a semiconductor OSAT (outsourced assembly and test) facility in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, this September. The company will look to establishing a fab in the second phase of its investments.
- US President Biden’s administration will cooperate with the Indian government to set up a semiconductor plant in India specifically to design processors for use in defence and national security applications such as sensors and weapons platforms.
- Chennai-based startup Mindgrove Technologies, incubated at IIT-Madras, has secured $8 million of funding to develop commercial CPUs based on the RISC-V architecture.
- Synaptics says it is doubling its workforce in India over the next few years, and is committed to end-to-end design and testing for its products here. It will soon undertake chip assembly and packaging here as well.
- Surat-based Suchi Semicon has announced it will invest ₹870 crore to set up an Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Gujarat, with orders already booked.
- AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su visited Bengaluru in November to inaugurate a new R&D centre, and says its target of investing $400 million in India, announced in 2023, will be achieved much sooner than the initially projected five year target.
- Indian semiconductor engineering firm Tessolve, a subsidiary of two-wheeler giant Hero, announced plans to acquire a German chip design firm called Dream Chip Technologies this November.
- Foxconn and HCL announced a joint venture this January to set up a semiconductor assembly and test plant in Uttar Pradesh to serve domestic customers.
- GlobalFoundries, formed when AMD divested its foundry capabilities, established its Kolkata Power Centre and plans to develop an entire ecosystem in the region where it will focus on Gallium Nitride materials research.
- The Government of Uttar Pradesh hopes to develop a technology hub and has published a Semiconductor Policy to attract investment. Two proposals have been greenlighted, one by Tarq Semiconductors (a Hiranandani Group company) and one by HCL and Foxconn.
- Fujifilm has been in discussions with potential joint venture partners and licensees for its chemical products which are used in the semiconductor manufacturing process.
- Another Japanese company, Horiba, was reported to be boosting its presence here to cater to demand for specialised tools for this industry.
- Rajasthan-based Sahasra Semiconductors has established a memory chip production facility and has shipped its own completely made-in-India microSD cards.
- Applied Materials, an American firm that supplies software and services for integrated circuit manufacturing opened a validation centre in India in March.
- Indian productivity software firm Zoho has plans to invest up to $700 million in semiconductor manufacturing in India.
- Micromax partnered with Taiwan’s Phison to create MiPhi, a new joint venture which will develop and manufacture data storage solutions including NAND memory chips in India.
Also read: 2024 in Review: The Year of Inescapable Consumer AI
