Government expects 4-6 semiconductor companies to invest in India: Vaishnaw

The central government hopes to attract 4-6 large semiconductor fabrication, packaging, and testing companies with investments similar to that being done in the Micron unit, over the next 12 months, union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw told ET.

These companies, Vaishnaw said, were in various stages of talks with the Centre and were encouraged by its focus on developing a complete ecosystem for semiconductor fabrication instead of bringing just semiconductor fabrication units to India.

“A complete ecosystem involves the semiconductor unit itself, design, getting the suppliers of chemicals, gases and all other compounds, equipment manufacturers and talent in place,” Vaishnaw said in an interview following Micron’s announcement of setting up an outsourced assembly and test facility at Sanand in Gujarat.

The announcements by Micron, Applied Materials and Lam Research India to set up India units reflect the government’s approach of focusing on developing the entire ecosystem, he said.

Micron, the world’s fifth largest semiconductor manufacturing company, will set up a unit to test and package memory chips which are likely to be used in mobile phones, laptops, servers, telecom equipment and electric vehicles, Vaishnaw said.

The company has already received its land allocation approvals and is ready with a construction design blueprint. A construction agency is also likely to be soon shortlisted and announced by Micron, the union minister said, adding that the company should be able to start production within the next six quarters.

“This is a very comprehensive approach. We hope that with the approval of this one unit, there will be other players keen to come to India. Many were willing but waiting for the development of the ecosystem. They will be encouraged now,” Vaishnaw said.

Applied Materials, which is the world’s leading maker of precision equipment has also announced its intent to invest more than $400 million to set up a collaborative engineering centre at Bangalore. The company plans to develop sub-systems and components used for semiconductor manufacturing, apart from developing talent for the semiconductor industry.