Tata Electronics has formed a strategic partnership with Japanese electronics firm Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) to advance India's semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Under the agreement, TEL will provide equipment and employee training to support Tata Electronics' semiconductor fabrication facility in Dholera, Gujarat, and an assembly and testing facility in Jagiroad, Assam. These investments total Rs 910 billion and Rs 270 billion, respectively, aiming to serve global markets with semiconductors for automotive, mobile, AI, and other sectors.

Tata Electronics aims to start chip production in 2026, with Randhir Thakur, Managing Director and CEO, highlighting TEL’s role as crucial to their plans. “TEL’s expertise in semiconductor equipment will help build a dynamic ecosystem to support the timely execution of our fab and advanced packaging factories,” Thakur stated. Toshiki Kawai, President, TEL, emphasised that this partnership covers both fabrication and packaging technologies, intending to foster rapid development and innovation across technology nodes.

The partnership comes amid broader moves in India’s semiconductor sector, including U.S.-based Lam Research establishing a new facility in Bengaluru to enhance semiconductor design and testing locally. Additionally, the Indian government recently approved a Rs 33 billion project for Mysuru-based Kaynes Semicon to establish a chip assembly and testing unit in Gujarat.

The growing sector is also drawing Indian startups, such as Mindgrove Technologies, which received government support under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme to develop vision processing chips. Mindgrove recently launched India’s first indigenously-designed high-performance IoT chip, offering competitive features at lower costs, underscoring the country's ambition to become a significant player in the global semiconductor industry.

(Mint)