Over the next 10 years, Applied Materials plans to invest $5 billion in India, Prabu Raja, president of Applied Materials' Semiconductor Products Group, announced at SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi.
At the three-day expo in New Delhi, which covered chip materials, design, fabrication, and packaging and attracted over 600 businesses and delegates from 52 nations, India showcased its aspirations in the semiconductor industry, Reuters reported.
This year, the industry has been plagued by a worldwide race for chip production capacity, exacerbated by rising demand for AI computing and complicated by geopolitical tensions.
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India has positioned itself as a "trusted partner" and courted businesses seeking to diversify away from Taiwan and China, while Washington and Beijing have implemented tit-for-tat export restrictions on chip technology.
"The world stands in utmost need of new and reliable manufacturing locations. I say with great responsibility that India is continuously preparing itself for this," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
According to government forecasts, India's semiconductor consumption is expected to increase from $45 billion to $50 billion in 2025, reaching up to $110 billion by 2030.
Applied Materials, a major global producer of semiconductor equipment, stated that its investment in India will focus on research, expanding the supply chain, and growing its workforce.
India, having pledged over $21 billion to two major semiconductor incentive initiatives, is still a latecomer to an industry that requires heavy capital investment and has been developed over decades by nations such as Taiwan.
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Over the past five years, 12 projects have been approved under India's incentive program, and three chip-packaging plants, including one operated by US-based Micron Technology, have started commercial production.
India's efforts, however, have so far failed to yield a single chip from a large-scale fabrication facility. Commercial production from the mission's flagship project, a $10 billion Tata Electronics semiconductor plant in Gujarat, has been pushed back by nearly two years.
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