Vedanta will begin foray into semiconductor and display fab this year

Vedanta Limited is committed to make sizable investments across business verticals in the coming years, Chairman Anil Agarwal said on July 12.

At the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) for FY23, Agarwal said the company’s strong presence in the natural resources sector is expected to yield even stronger returns in the coming years.

He added that the mineral-intensive energy transition will also boost demand exponentially.

“Vedanta already has, in its unique portfolio, 7 minerals which are key to the new, emerging technologies. Our portfolio consists of high quality, low-cost, tier 1 assets with few, if any, parallels globally. It is noteworthy that demand is growing at double-digit rates for most of our products,” Agarwal said.

This comes after Vedanta and electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn on July 10 called off their joint venture, which planned to invest $19.5 billion to set up a semiconductor manufacturing unit in Gujarat.

Vedanta has however said that it plans to go ahead with its semiconductor business venture despite Foxconn pulling out of the JV.

For FY24, Vedanta is going to spend around Rs 14,000 crore as capex across its businesses, he said.

Vedanta has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net-zero operations, he added.

The metals-to-oil conglomerate aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and net water positivity by 2030. The company’s decarbonisation efforts include the utilization of 2.5 GW of round-the-clock renewable energy and a target to reduce absolute emissions by 25 percent by 2030.

Vedanta has invested over USD 35 Billion (or Rs 2.9 lakh crores) to date in India, contributing to more than 1.4 percent of the country’s GDP. Our contribution to the government exchequer is approximately Rs 3 lakh crores over the past seven years, with Rs 74,000 crores contributed in FY23 alone.

New opportunities
The business tycoon believes that huge opportunity lies in the electronics sector. Agarwal said the company will begin foray into semiconductor fab and display fab this year, subject to government approval.

“This will open an entirely new avenue of rapid growth for the company in a sector that is strategic for the country,” he added.

Vedanta’s subsidiary AvanStrate, the 4th largest manufacturer of glass substrate in the world has the niche patented technology and is one among the only four global companies to own this, said Agarwal.

“And we have lined up partners for our semiconductor venture. With these ventures, we will enable our youth to access to affordable electronic devices which will help them fulfil their aspirations,” he said at the company’s AGM.​ Moneycontrol