2024 Sees India’s Semiconductor Industry Heat Up

It’s no secret India wants in on the semiconductor manufacturing game, and 2024 is showing their ambition. 

At the end of 2023, India’s government was looking for a second round of applicants looking to invest in semiconductor development in the country, to the tune of several billion in government subsidies. 

US chipmaker Micron had also announced plans to build a new assembly and test factory in Gujarat, a westernmost state in India known for its manufacturing capabilities. The facility is set to focus on the assembly and testing of DRAM and NAND products, with the goal of catering to both domestic and international markets. 

So where do things stand in 2024?

India to get three new semiconductor plants

On March 1, Taiwanese chipmaker Powership Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) announced it would build India’s very first semiconductor wafer fabrication plant in conjunction with Tata Electronics, a subsidiary of India’s largest enterprise, Tata Sons Group. 

Through the partnership, the Tata Electronics plans to “produce power management IC, display driver IC as well as microcontrollers and high-performance computing logic, in order to enter the automotive, computing and data storage, wireless communications, artificial intelligence and other application end markets.”

PSMC’s Chairman Frank Huang pointed to India’s large population and huge domestic market as major benefits of its new partnership. 

The new fabrication plant–also planned in Gujarat–will have a manufacturing capacity of up to 50,000 wafers per month. In their own announcement, Dr Randhir Thakur, CEO & MD of Tata Electronics noted that “Our partnership with PSMC provides access to a broad technology portfolio in leading edge and mature nodes including 28nm, 40nm, 55nm, 90nm & 110nm and also collaboration for high volume manufacturing.”

But PSCM isn’t Tata’s only dive into the semiconductor manufacturing industry. 

With India’s Cabinet’s approval, Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test will also establish an ATMP facility in Morigaon, Assam. Morigaon is a town area committee with a population of over 5,000,000 people. Unlike Gujarat, which sits on the westernmost end of India’s borders, Morigaon is on the far eastern side near the Brahmaputra River. The Brahmaputra River is known for its annual flooding and as recently as April of last year had flooded parts of Morigaon, affecting nearly 45,000 people and some 3,000 hectares of crop. 

The ATMP facility will receive an investment of roughly $325.99 million and on completion will feature “advanced semiconductor packaging technologies, including flip chip and ISIP (integrated system in package) technologies.” It is expected to produce 48 million per day. 

The third major investment to kick off the start of India’s bid for semiconductor manufacturing stardom is a Joint Venture Agreement between CG Power (India), Renesas Electronics Corporation (Japan), and Stars Microelectronics (Thailand) to establish an OSAT facility in Gujarat, India. According to the press release, the “state of the art manufacturing facility…with a capacity that will ram up to 15 million units per day…will manufacture a wide range of products–ranging from legacy packages such as QFN and QFP to advanced packages such as FC BGA and FC CSP.”

These three investments, valued at $15.2 billion, are expected to kick off a long period of semiconductor growth for India, which aims to have a semiconductor market worth of $63 billion by 2026. 

Indian Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw noted that construction on all three plants would begin within the next 100 days. 

Tower Semiconductor to join India’s semiconductor ambitions

Israeli-based Tower Semiconductor also submitted a proposal to India’s government. The proposal, which seeks to build an $8 billion chip fabrication facility, would produce 65 and 40 nanometer chips if successful. 

This is not Tower’s first bid to enter India’s market; previously, the company applied to set up a $3 billion plant in partnership with ISMC. The plan hit a series of snarls, however, after Intel announced its plans to acquire Tower. That agreement was terminated in August of last year. 

What’s next for India’s semiconductor manufacturing industry?

India is certainly losing no time distinguishing itself as an ambitious–albeit new–contender for a spot on the semiconductor stage. Not only does the country have three new facilities set to break ground this spring, the country is also considering 18 proposals under its Semicon India subsidy scheme according to IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Of the 18 proposals, four were for semiconductor manufacturing plants and 13 for chip assembly units. 

Whether or not the construction of these facilities stays on pace remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: where this year began will not be where it ends for India’s ambitious semiconductor program. Look out, world. Here comes India!