Worldwide efforts are being made to bring semiconductor manufacturing in-house. India with its Rs 76,000 crore Financial incentive plan. India is attempting to bring the whole chip ecosystem—not just manufacturing—to the nation.
Leading foundries, which produce semiconductors, are already boosting their manufacturing capacity in anticipation of the increasing demand for semiconductors in the upcoming years. Moreover, Intel has made large investments in fabs (semiconductor production facilities) in both the United States and Europe.
Most people are curious as to whether Intel would establish a chip facility in India. Which is still in a waiting and watching position.
This isn’t just wishful thinking, though. After all, the business has previously made many attempts at doing the same, including ones in 1969 & 2005. But the issue is, is India a little bit too late, & is Intel willing to invest right now?
In 1969, Intel co-founder Robert Noyce travelled to India to investigate the possibility of establishing a chip production plant there.
Sadly, the government informed him he could only put up a fab that would not produce more than a few hundreds of thousands chips at the moment, which was an absolute impossibility.
Once more, in 2005–2006, major chipmaker Intel planned to spend billions of dollars in India. But the administration at the time took its time putting out a proposal for chip production.
Craig Barrett, a former chairman and CEO of Intel. Claimed in 2007 that the Indian govt lost the window of opportunity for the business to commit to additional tranches of production capacity. Because it was a little tardy in releasing its proposal for semiconductor manufacturing.
Semiconductor giants are investing big in India
Subsequently, the company announced that it will invest 2.5 billion dollar in a 300micrometres wafer fabrication plant in China. At around the same time, southern Vietnam acquired India’s semiconductor testing & assembly facility.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman & founder of Bharti Enterprises, stated the same thing at one of Business Today’s events, saying that Intel had approached India about building a sizable semiconductor manufacturing plant there, but we had missed the chance.
“Intel came. This happened, I believe, when Dr. Manmohan Singh was Dr. Craig Barrett. I had long talks. They intended to build a sizable semiconductor production plant here. They want some land as well as financial assistance. We were unable to provide.
That was a little action on India’s part. When the factory moved from India, we lost it for good.
And now that India is prepared & committed to producing its own chips, it appears that Intel is still lagging behind.
The CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger, visited India in Apr 2022 and was impressed by the country’s commitment to the semiconductor industry. But he isn’t yet ready to make investments there.
According to Nivruti Rai, Country Head for Intel India & Vice President of Intel Foundry Services. The govt has thus made the incentives quite alluring.
Intel is continually on the lookout for new opportunities & markets. Building a fab without a domestic market, however, is not a wise idea until we have a market. Intel is still assessing and determining what the opportunities are.
Little over a year ago, Intel committed to expanding in Germany (Europe), Ohio (the USA), & Arizona (a brownfield expansion) (USA). “We are therefore heavily committee for the upcoming years.
But as you mentioned, we have studied India in the previous & will do so again. And more so with our incentive, many of those PLI programmes, I believe India has some good possibility and has a high likelihood of being elect,” adds Rai.
China Losing New Bets – Chipmakers are Eyeing to China’s Alternatives
The 2nd round of applications for India’s chip plan will shortly be open. We can only hope that Intel is one of the four main fabs with whom the govt is in advanced negotiations. As revealed by Minister of Electronics & Technology Ashwini Vaishaw.
As, The first chipmaking factory will be built in India by Foxconn and Vedanta for $19.5 billion (£16.9 billion) in Sept 2022.
The investment highlights how China is in risk of loosing its position as the top manufacturer of consumer electronics in the globe and is one of Foxconn’s largest single investments in India to date.
As ties between Washington and Beijing deteriorate, the investment tries to minimize the company’s reliance on China. Also, the high domestic demand of iPhones and the increase in India’s exports brought on by the general broadening of supply chains worldwide away from China are the factors driving Foxconn’s enhanced India push.
The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a $10 billion incentive scheme late last year, pledging to cover up to half of a project’s cost in order to entice display & semiconductor manufacturers to establish factories in India.
Yet, Indian governments are vigorously trying to attract semiconductor industry even if Intel and TSMC have not yet made any promises.