India Next in Line With Incentives for Chip Makers

Unlike the US and the EU where so far no firm budgets have been approved, India has already approved a US$10 billion incentive plan for semiconductor, as well as display panel manufacturers who are willing to consider India as the next location for their new fabs. According to Reuters, the Indian government is said to cover up to 50 percent of the project cost of new semiconductor and display panel fabs. So far it seems like at least three companies are interested in the scheme for semiconductor manufacturing, namely Tower Semiconductor out of Israel, Foxconn and an unnamed Singaporean consortium.

The Indian government is hoping that the investments will create some 35,000 direct jobs for highly qualified staff, plus up to another 100,000 indirect jobs. India is lagging behind when it comes to the semiconductor industry, despite there being a growing local semiconductor designs, most of them can’t be produced locally due to lack of suitable foundry partners. It’s unlikely that we’ll see a huge shift here, unless there’s local interest in starting a foundry that manufactures for Indian companies in India. Cela dit, if India can manage to win over some foreign companies that will set up foundries locally, this is a means to further local know-how in semiconductor manufacturing, which could lead to local foundries in the future, even though it might not happen in the near future.