Companies from US, Europe, Japan among those keen to join India's chip making ecosystem: Official

New Delhi, Companies based in the US, Europe, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore have shown interest in India's semiconductor manufacturing programme Semicon 2.0, a senior official of the Electronics and IT ministry said on Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on semiconductor design at IIT Delhi organised by ICEA, India Semiconductor Mission CEO and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) Amitesh Kumar Sinha said that companies from across the globe will participate in the Semicon India event in September, where they will explore partnerships and opportunities in the country.

"Japan, US, European companies, Singaporean companies. I can also give specific names of European companies. Germany, Netherlands, a lot of Malaysian companies, Singaporean companies. They are all very interested," Sinha said.


The government approved the Rs 1.27 lakh-crore Semicon 2.0 programme to accelerate domestic semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities.

Sinha said that guidelines for the scheme will be out in about two weeks.

He said that a lot of foreign semiconductor firms will showcase their products and technology at the Semicon India event.

"We see that it is a good platform for technology tagging because both the parties will be in front of each other. They may look into some kind of collaboration also," he said.

Sinha further said that the government has enhanced focus on chip design as it carries 50 per cent in the entire semiconductor value chain.

"It (chip design) is the lowest hanging fruit because only 20 per cent of our people work in it across the globe. If we give them an enabling provision, like we have given in this programme, then they can make a fabless product company. There is a lot of benefit from their creation. They will use our fab (chip plants). They will also use our OSAT and the whole ecosystem," Sinha said.

A fabless company designs its own semiconductors, but get them produced through third-party chip makers.

Sinha said that most of the companies will eventually come to India and some will come due to FOMO (fear of missing out).

When asked if the government is in discussions with Hynix Semiconductor, given there is a shortage of memory supplies, Sinha said that there are discussions with most of the players, including the Korean memory chip maker.

"We have asked them to come. The cost of manufacturing will come down here. Memory prices are at an all-time high. Countries are also having a lot of dialogue with their local companies, whether it is a Korean company or a US company," Sinha said.