India’s government has approved US$15.2 billion worth of investments in semiconductor fabrication plants, including a Tata Group proposal to build the country’s first major chipmaking facility.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet approved Tata’s plan to build a US$11 billion site that can fabricate about 50,000 wafers per month, Indian Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters in New Delhi yesterday.
The Indian government also cleared Tata’s separate proposal for a US$3 billion-plus chip assembly plant, and a packaging venture between Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corp and the Murugappa Group’s CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd.
Photo: Reuters
“We will start construction of this plant within 100 days,” the minister said during the briefing, referring to Tata’s fab.
India hopes to attract chip giants to boost its domestic manufacturing sector. The government has offered to shoulder half the cost of any approved projects, up to an initial ceiling of US$10 billion. The semiconductor fund has already helped US memory maker Micron Technology Inc establish a US$2.75 billion assembly facility in Gujarat.
Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC, 力積電) yesterday confirmed that it would assist Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd to build India’s first 12-inch wafer fab in Dholera, Gujarat.
The fab construction will begin this year, Powerchip said in a statement, adding that the new facility is expected to create more than 20,000 jobs in India.
Through the cooperation with Powerchip, Tata Electronics, a subsidiary of Tata conglomerate, plans to produce power management ICs, display driver ICs as well as microcontrollers and high-performance computing logic chips as it aims to enter the automotive, computing and data storage, wireless communications, artificial intelligence and other end markets, the Taiwanese chipmaker said.
Semiconductors have grown into a key geopolitical battleground, with the US, Japan and China investing heavily in developing domestic capabilities.
The cooperation between PSMC and Tata is “indeed timely” at this critical moment of the global restructuring of high-tech supply chain, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said in the statement.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in