As Micron's MoU with the government of Gujarat, India is coming up in hours, Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture, which also plans to set up a wafer fab in the state, re-submitted its application and scaled down its project for only 40nm node technology.
Business Today and ABP News Bureau reported that Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductor Ltd, a joint venture formed by Vedanta and Foxconn in February 2022, issued a statement saying that they had submitted the application as per the revised guidelines and are committed to building a world-class fab in India.
Business Today quoted sources saying the new application is for 40nm node technology rather than the previously planned 28-40nm nodes. The report quoted David Reed, CEO of the joint venture, saying that the company doesn't have to build all that high-end stuff and should introduce technologies for 55-90nm nodes.
Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductors signed an MoU with the government of Gujarat to build a wafer fab and a display fab at Dholera with an investment of INR1.5 trillion (US$19 billion). Meanwhile, The Hindu reported that the Gujarat government would sign an MoU with Micron for an ATMP plant in Sanand as the western state has become the front-runner in India to host the country's first semiconductor ecosystem.
Initially, the INR760 billion India Semiconductor Mission only subsidized 50% of the project cost for the technology node below 28nm, under which the Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture applied for setting up a wafer fab for 28nm technology that raised doubts by the Indian government. In September 2022, India changed its mind and provided a uniform 50% subsidy for all eligible projects under the incentive scheme, regardless of manufacturing nodes, which implies that India is pragmatically trying to encourage locally-made chips with mature node technology that has higher demand than advanced chips in India.
On the other hand, despite the resubmission of the application by Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductors, The Economic Times reported that Foxconn is looking for a new local partner for the chip business in India, and WSJ reported that Foxconn might go its way to set up a semiconductor manufacturing facility even without support from the Indian government.
