iPhones heading toward using Micron’s Made in Gujarat chips

Micron Technology, a global leader in memory and storage, is considering supplying Made-in-India chips from its Gujarat plant to one of its key global clients, Apple, whose vendors assemble iPhones in the country.

Micron is setting up an assembly test marking and packaging (ATMP) plant in Sanand, Gujarat.

Currently, Apple vendors import chips for manufacturing iPhones. Sources in the know say the aim is to use part of the
production to supply to Micron’s clients in India directly.

The Sanand plant is expected to roll out the first India-made chips by December. Sources aware of the development say that while the wafers will be imported from Micron’s plants in other parts of the world, they will be processed into chips at the India plant.

However, a final deal will depend on Apple Inc agreeing to it.

Although the chips will be exported initially in the first phase, Micron is planning to supply them directly to its global clients in the next phase to manufacturing or assembly facilities in India and Apple is one of them; Apple’s three vendors assemble iPhones in the country and, in fact, 12 per cent of total iPhone production is assembled in India. Micron has facilities for ATMP and wafers in various locations, including the US, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, China, and Taiwan.

Apple declined to comment. Micron Technology did not respond to questions either in India or at its headquarters.

The use of Made in India chips will go a long way in Apple’s drive for value addition here, which is currently pegged at only
10-12 per cent.

Under its production-linked incentive scheme for mobile devices, the government had targeted that mobile phones eligible under the scheme should hit 40 per cent value addition by the end of five years in FY26.

Micron was the first big global company to be cleared under the government’s semiconductor scheme. It is investing $2.75 billion to build its ATMP plant at Sanand.

The central and the state government will provide a 70 per cent subsidy on the construction of the project (the centre offers a subsidy of 50 per cent).

The plant will have one of the largest clean rooms in the world of over one million square feet. It is expected to generate 5000 direct jobs and 15,000-20,000 indirect jobs in Gujarat. A senior Micron executive has said earlier that the value addition in processing the wafers to different kinds of chips could be between 10-40 per cent.

According to Statista, Micron dropped out of the top 10 top semiconductor majors in 2023 after being in it for years. In 2023, the company declared that a ban by China against Micron selling its products to domestic companies in China would have an adverse impact on its revenues.

According to Reuters, China accounted for a quarter of Micron’s revenues through direct and indirect sales through distributors.

Apart from Apple, Micron’s global clients include Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, and Samsung, many of whom have a manufacturing base or vendors in India. Business Standard