Chip away on the manufacturing front
economictimes.indiatimes.comsemiconductors. Earlier this week, it announced that three more chip fabrication units in India will be announced in another few months. The total investment will reportedly be of the order of $8-12 billion.
Two days later, GoI's statement was a climb-up from its September announcement that two large proposals are underway, 'which will establish India as a leader in [manufacturing] some of the niche semiconductor products'. Details have yet to be made public. And details are where, along with the devil, actual dividends lie.
What we know is that the five proposals are under the ambitious $10 billion India Semiconductor Mission unveiled two Decembers ago.
The incentives are lucrative — a whopping 50% central subsidy on capex. And states could top it up with a further 20-25% from their pockets. But despite such a push, large chip fabrication companies have stayed away.
Most of the proposals out of five have fallen by the wayside. Getting Micron was a win of sorts. For the $2.75 billion project to establish Micron's chip packaging unit in Sanand, Gujarat, the US chip major is investing $825 million.
GoI has been assuring that the first 'Made in India' chip will come out of the Sanand oven by end-December 2024. Others like Kaynes Technology, the Murugappa Group and HCL are also looking at ATMP — assembly, testing, marking and packaging — plants. So, one hopes actual 'Made in India' chips to be a bit farther down that road.
Globally, US and Europe are pumping big money into their own chip incentive programmes, with companies like Intel, TSMC and Micron having committed to new or expanded fabs across the US and Europe.
