L&T Semiconductor Technologies Mulls Starting Chip Production In India In 2 Years

Homegrown chip company, L&T Semiconductor Technologies is mulling to make its own semiconductor products in the country in next two years. The company's CEO, Sandeep Kumar, shared this plan in a recent interview with news agency PTI.

Kumar said the company will be ready to work on 15 different chip designs at once by the end of this year. Some chipset designs are already in progress and should be ready by late next year, with production starting two years from now.

L&T Semiconductor's Revenue Target

L&T Semiconductor Technologies plans to build its own chip factories once it reaches a certain level of revenue, somewhere between $50 million and $1 billion, depending on the type of chips it makes.

L&T Semiconductor Technologies is starting as a "fabless" chip maker. It will begin with designing it chips, but won't make them in its own factories yet. Kumar explained that this approach helps reduce India's reliance on foreign companies for chip design, the PTI report added.

"First, we need to build products. We need to figure out how to sell those products that are of true strategic value," Kumar was quoted as saying. 

"If an indigenous company makes a product, then it is assured that the product is strategically retained in India. It cannot be controlled or stopped by some other country," he added.

This development comes as India's chip industry quickly grows. Several companies, including the country's biggest conglomerate Tata Electronics, Micron, and others, are investing large amounts of money to build chip-making facilities in India.

As the domestic semiconductor ecosystem strengthens, India's reliance on imported chips is likely to be significantly reduced.

Meanwhile, according to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, India is on track to produce its first domestically manufactured semiconductor chip within the next two years. Goyal shared this significant development during an interview with CNBC.

Several major US-based chip manufacturers have expressed interest in expanding their operations in India. Among these companies are industry leading chipset makers such as Nvidia, AMD, and Micron, all of which have made commitments to grow their presence in the country.