What About Samsung, SK?
India, a formidable force in the Information Technology (IT) sector and the world’s most populous country, is making rapid strides to establish itself as a “Global Semiconductor Hub,” attracting the attention of both American and Taiwanese semiconductor companies. Similar to President Joe Biden’s pursuit of the “Made in America” strategy to elevate the nation’s manufacturing prowess in advanced industries, Prime Minister Modi is also placing significant emphasis on the “Made in India” policy in the realm of semiconductor manufacturing.
According to reports from the semiconductor industry and foreign media on July 31, U.S. semiconductor design specialist AMD recently made a momentous decision to invest around US$400 million in a new venture located in Bengaluru, India. With its headquarters in Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara, AMD is renowned for its diverse semiconductor design capabilities and is now venturing into establishing a sizable semiconductor design center in India.
Prior to AMD, several U.S.-based companies, including Micron, the world’s third-largest memory manufacturer, equipment specialist Applied Materials (AMAT), and Microtechnology, have also made decisions on new investments in India. Micron is channeling an investment of US$825 million dollars to construct DRAM and NAND flash testing facilities in Gujarat, India, while AMAT is planning to establish a US$400 million engineering center in Bengaluru.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, a key partner of Apple, is making significant headway in India with a substantial investment plan amounting to US$2 billion over the course of five years with the aim of establishing semiconductor facilities. This is a separate new investment plan from the recently postponed joint investment plan of Foxconn and India’s Vedanta Group, which totals 19.5 billion dollars.
To attract foreign semiconductor companies to invest in India, the government has devised a substantial US$10 billion subsidy program and is willing to shoulder half of the expenses related to establishing semiconductor facilities. Furthermore, the state governments in India are committed to providing an additional 20 percent financial support.
Although the Indian government has also requested investments from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, it is reported that India is relatively lower on the priority list for these two companies. Both Samsung and SK hynix are primarily focusing on investments in their semiconductor clusters in Yongin and their respective projects in the U.S., including factories and research and development facilities. An industry insider said, “At present, India lacks the necessary infrastructure to accommodate memory companies establishing production facilities, and there exists a considerable gap between the memory requirements of the Indian market and the memory products supplied by our companies, resulting in a situation of limited market viability.”