Actively bringing fab construction suppliers from Taiwan to Dholera, says Powerchip
Martin Chu said he was “confident that the government of India and government of Gujarat will provide a favourable business environment and investment protection for Taiwanese businesses interested in investing in India”.
Taiwanese semiconductor company Powerchip (PSMC), which is working with Tata Electronics to build India’s first commercial fabrication plant, is attracting fab construction companies from the island nation to Dholera in Gujarat, where the site is coming up, a top company official said Wednesday.
“Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership…strategic initiatives have created a welcoming environment for an international company like PSMC, and an ecosystem which is conducive to innovation, investment and long-term success,” Martin Chu, President, PSMC, said during the Gujarat SemiConnect conference.
The Tata-PSMC fab, being built at a cost of roughly $11 billion, is among the five semiconductor projects the government has greenlit under the India Semiconductor Mission. Four assembly and testing plants by US-based Micron Technology, the Tatas, Murugappa Group’s CG Power in partnership with Japan’s Renesas, and Kaynes Semicon are also under construction.
Chu said that PSMC and Tata have begun collaborating on multiple fronts. “We are proud to partner with Tata Electronics to build India’s first commercial 12 inch wafer fab in Dholera. We have already begun collaborating on multiple fronts – from fab construction and technology transfer, to talent development and ecosystem building,” he said.
“We are actively bringing fab construction suppliers from Taiwan to Dholera, doing our best to build India’s semiconductor ecosystem… We encourage more international partners to join us in this endeavour and support the development of local suppliers and capabilities,” he added.
Chu said he was “confident that the government of India and government of Gujarat will provide a favourable business environment and investment protection for Taiwanese businesses interested in investing in India”.
The Indian Express had earlier reported that the Indian government had mobilised officials to Taiwan bearing a key message: an explicit assurance of policy stability. Senior officials from the IT Ministry had earlier met with industry executives in Taipei and government officials, to assure them of policy stability, especially about changes in rules governing imports and tweaks in customs duties on inputs.
Tata and PSMC also announced a memorandum of understanding with Himax Technologies, a Taiwan-based fabless chip company that makes display driver ICs and semiconductor products. Himax’s display driver ICs and timing controllers have been adopted at scale across multiple industries worldwide, including TVs, PC monitors, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, automotive, ePaper devices, and industrial displays.
As part of the agreement, the entities will engage in end-to-end production of display semiconductor solutions for their mutual customers, from chip design to chip manufacturing and packaging, as well as electronics manufacturing services (EMS) to deliver system-level solutions, to both the Indian and global markets. The partnership also encompasses designing and manufacturing next-generation solutions to meet global demand while enhancing supply chain resilience.
Randhir Thakur, CEO and MD of Tata Electronics, said, “This MoU with Himax and PSMC will enable the development of differentiated solutions for display-related semiconductor products for our mutual customers… Together, we will drive innovation and develop next-generation technologies to meet the growing demands of display and ultralow power AI sensing technologies across key industries while contributing to a resilient semiconductor supply chain”.
