India needs 10 more chip fabs in next 10 years, says SEMI's Ajit Manocha

India needs at least 10 more semiconductor chip fabrication companies to set up shop in India in the next decade, said Ajit Manocha, president of the global semiconductor industry body SEMI.

“If we want to make India a powerhouse for the industry, there is no ceiling on the number. The challenge is to show the companies the potential for growth, business and opportunities in India,” he said at the curtain raiser for Semicon 2024.

The presence of more outsourced assembly and testing units or assembly, testing, marking and packaging companies in India’s semiconductor ecosystem should be seen as a positive movement rather than something limiting for the country, he said.


“If OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) companies have a positive experience, that will also be a catalyst for other front-end companies which set up more capital-extensive projects. They go hand-in-hand. Whatever is coming to India, embrace them,” Manocha said.

With the Rs 76,000 crore government corpus to set up a semiconductor ecosystem from scratch almost exhausted, the next phase will have to focus on bringing the complete ecosystem of companies into the semiconductor ecosystem, he said.

“India should focus on ecosystem companies. We should welcome any country, any company that wants to set up shop in India. India has to see what their appetite is, but I am pretty convinced India is ready to go to a bigger (capital expenditure) number,” Manocha said.

Though the incentives to allied industries including raw material suppliers will help boost the prospects of more companies coming to India, the country should also look into crystallising the product market which will help in becoming a big consumer of semiconductor products, he said.

“The market is one big factor everybody looks at. We need to show what is the potential for foreign investors,” Manocha said.