The Indian state of Karnataka is in talks with Foxconn to set up a semiconductor chip manufacturing unit.
The administrative head of Karnataka’s government, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, along with other officials met Foxconn Chairman, Young Liu, in Taiwan to discuss the project.
Bommai said on Twitter, “We are in serious discussion of investment plans with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) at their Taiwan HQ & look forward to a fruitful collaboration. We remain committed to welcome the best companies to the state & reap rewards for our people.”
He was responding to a tweet by the state’s investment promotion arm which said: “The Govt. of Karnataka is happy to discuss investment plans with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) at their Taiwan Headquarters and looks forward to a fruitful collaboration in the state.”
If Foxconn takes up the offer, it will be its second semiconductor manufacturing project in India.
The company has already signed an agreement with Indian natural resources conglomerate Vedanta to set up a US$19 billion (S$25.21 billion) semiconductor manufacturing facility in the state of Gujarat.
It would also be Karnataka's second semiconductor manufacturing project as well. Last year the semiconductor consortium ISMC announced that would spend US$3 billion to build a fab on a 150-acre site in the state.
In 2021, India announced a US$10 billion dollar Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to encourage semiconductor and display manufacturing in the country.
Foxconn already has manufacturing facilities in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for companies such as Apple for its iPhones, and Amazon for its Fire TV stick devices.
Samsung steps in
In a related development, Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) - a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics - has partnered with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to promote research and development (R&D) in the field of on-chip Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection.
ESD is an electromagnetic phenomenon that may cause equipment malfunction.
As Integrated Circuits (IC) chip failures usually relate to ESD, the R&D in ESD technology for highly reliable interfaces and system-on-chip (SoC) that operate at low power and high speed is part of the semiconductor innovation effort.
A group of researchers under Prof Mayank Shrivastava at IISc's Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE) will conduct related research and its solutions will be used in Samsung's advanced process nodes.
IISC’s Director Govindan Rangarajan, said the collaboration with SSIR was in a “crucial” area of advanced nanoelectronics device research.
“The partnership reinforces commitment to strengthen industry-academia engagements that can make a significant impact in the coming years,” he added.
