Vedanta’s CEO, Anil Agarwal, confidently announced that the company is on track to produce its first ‘made-in-India‘ chips within the next 2.5 years. He also reaffirmed the progress in establishing a chip manufacturing unit by revealing that Vedanta has successfully secured a technology partner for the venture.
Vedanta earlier signed a deal of $19.5 billion with Chip-manufacturing Giant, Foxconn , but the deal was taken off board after the latter chose to move out of this decision. This deal was signed under PM Modi’s initiative of developing Tech related equipment and it’s counterparts in the scheme of “Make in India”, which is been looked after by IT department and its ministers. There was a massive lashback on Foxconn’s decision as the thought put forward was that It’s a loss for the tech-giant to not carry on with the billion dollar deal.
Despite this large setback, Vedanta seems confident in going ahead in the process of developing Indian made chips. In an official statement, Agarwal said
Vedanta is fully committed to a fab and a display unit in India. David Reed (CEO of semiconductor fab unit) has created a fabulous plan to execute the fab venture and similarly YJ Chen for display glass manufacturing. We have identified a tech partner for fab and are in the process of tying up with them.
Vedanta’s aspirations for its semiconductor fabrication facility have encountered some obstacles. Initially, the government returned an earlier proposal due to the absence of a technology partner. In response, Vedanta has been reportedly inking memoranda of understanding with international companies like STMicroelectronics. However, the government insists that applicants must secure investment from experienced chip technology players to become joint venture partners.
The mines and mineral company hit yet another roadblock recently when its JV partner Foxconn, which is one of the biggest Apple suppliers, checked out of the partnership and instead decided to venture on its own.
Vedanta has a good cash flow, we will make a capital allocation in Vedanta and there is a queue of people to give us equity and debt…but we want the tie-ups to be in place first, and have ecosystem,
Agarwal countered the criticisms effectively by stating the above.
The Semicon India roadshow arrives at a crucial juncture, coinciding with India’s efforts to attract major semiconductor players to establish chip fabrication and assembly plants within the country, aided by a substantial $10 billion subsidy program.
During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US, semiconductor giant Micron pledged to set up a sizeable $2.7 billion assembly plant in India. It is projected that both the Central and state governments of Gujarat will jointly bear 70 percent of the project’s cost through subsidies. Simultaneously, Applied Materials, a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has expressed its commitment to invest $400 million in designing chip-making machinery within India.
