India Launches $445M Chip Plant with HCL-Foxconn Partnership

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for India Chip Pvt. Ltd., a ₹3,700 crore semiconductor facility being developed in Jewar, Greater Noida by a joint venture between HCL Group (60%) and Foxconn (40%). The plant will function as an Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility, with a planned capacity to process 20,000 wafers per month. It is expected to be operational by 2028.

Key Highlights

• Investment: ₹3,700 crore
• Partnership: HCL Group (India) and Foxconn (Taiwan)
• Location: Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), Jewar, Greater Noida
• Timeline: Operational by 2028
• Capacity: 20,000 wafers/month
• Jobs: Estimated 3,500 new employment opportunities

Strategic Importance

• Strengthens India’s semiconductor ecosystem and reduces dependence on imports
• Supports the government’s “Techade” vision of technological self-reliance
• Positions India as a competitive player in the global chip supply chain

This project is being seen as a milestone in India’s push to become a hub for advanced electronics manufacturing, especially amid global supply chain realignments.

Notably, the distinction between an OSAT facility and a semiconductor fabrication plant (fab) is central to understanding India’s chip strategy.

Aspect	OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly & Test)	Fab (Fabrication Plant)
Role in supply chain	Handles post-fabrication processes: cutting wafers into chips, packaging, assembly, and testing	Manufactures chips from raw silicon wafers using advanced processes like lithography, etching, deposition
Complexity	Less capital-intensive; focuses on packaging and quality assurance	Extremely complex; requires cleanrooms, precision tools, and multi-billion-dollar investments
Investment scale	Hundreds of millions of dollars (e.g., India’s ₹3,700 crore plant)	Tens of billions of dollars (TSMC, Intel fabs often exceed $10–20B)
Technology focus	Ensures chips meet specifications, reliability, and performance standards	Actually creates the semiconductor devices (transistors, circuits)
Strategic value	Builds ecosystem resilience, supports fabless companies, and reduces dependency on foreign packaging/testing	Core of semiconductor sovereignty — enables full control of chip design and production
Examples	ASE Group, Amkor, JCET	TSMC (Taiwan), Samsung (Korea), Intel (US)

In short: OSAT = finishing school for chips; Fab = birthplace of chips. India is starting with OSAT to build capacity before attempting full-scale fabs.