Global chipmakers assessing India plant locations, Minister Says

Some of the world’s biggest chipmakers are evaluating locations in India for new plants in a bid to broaden manufacturing beyond their home bases, the country’s technology minister said on Thursday.

Companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. are investing tens of billions of dollars each year expanding their output capacity, and India is in talks with some of the giants to attract them into the country. Their expansion drive comes as nations around the globe are increasingly putting resources into securing domestic chip production.

“India is right there squarely on their global plans whether it is Intel, GlobalFoundries,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s minister for electronics and information technology, told Bloomberg Television. “TSMC is still taking more time, but other big ones are very serious in their plans.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government late last year unveiled a $10 billion incentive plan, offering to cover as much as half of a project’s cost, to lure display and semiconductor fabricators to set up base in India. The country is also the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker.

Modi, who is intensifying his push to establish India as a chipmaking hub, is set to host a three-day gathering in the southern tech hub of Bangalore from Friday to makes pitches to global semiconductor companies.

India’s democracy and talent pool make it stand out among other countries vying for chip sovereignty, Vaishnav said. Bloomberg