Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, on Wednesday announced a semiconductor packaging and testing service joint venture with India’s HCL Group.
The iPhone assembler said in a statement that its subsidiary Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Ltd has teamed up with HCL to set up a semiconductor joint venture in India.
By investing US$37.20 million, the subsidiary secured a 40 percent stake in the outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) joint venture, which has set its sights on India’s semiconductor market, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
An OSAT service provider packages, assembles and tests wafers made by pure-play wafer foundry operators, turning them into finished semiconductor chips.
Through its investment, Hon Hai said it is looking forward to working with HCL, one of India’s leading software and engineering firms, to establish a semiconductor ecosystem and expects that cooperation would enhance supply chain resilience in the South Asian country.
Hon Hai said it would continue a build-operate-localize (BOL) business model to support Indian communities.
A report from the business news outlet Mint cited industry insiders as saying that HCL has had semiconductor design and testing software expertise for a long time, and following its existing partnerships with several leading chipmakers, a partnership with Hon Hai made sense for both sides.
In July last year, Hon Hai announced it would be pulling out of a US$19.5 billion joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta Group to make semiconductors in India. Indian media reports said that the breakup might have been caused by the slow pace at which the joint venture was proceeding.
The reports said the project was hindered by a lack of technical partners and because the Indian government had required that the joint venture resubmit applications for awards and subsidies.
While the cooperation with Vedanta fell apart, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors in November last year that the company would continue to push for semiconductor investments in India through the BOL business model.
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