Tamil Nadu announced a seed grant of Rs 100 crore for its School of Semiconductor initiative. The first project to kick off is a Centre for Advanced Semiconductor Technologies, in partnership with IIT Madras and leading corporates in the semiconductor space.
The Centre will house India's first in situ semiconductor fab processing facility. It will also include a small-scale production-grade fab which is meant to aid small-scale local production, drive advanced research, and support continuous skilling and incubation of startups.
“With this initiative, our focus is on developing human capital in this sector and building a globally competitive semiconductor workforce in Tamil Nadu,” said Tamil Nadu Industries Minister TRB Rajaa.
“From fabless design to equipment manufacturing, from R&D to startups, and from technician training to advanced engineering, we are creating opportunities for every layer of talent. Our vision is to make Tamil Nadu the singular, indispensable source of highly-skilled talent required for the booming semiconductor industry across the nation and the world," Rajaa added.
The state ranks third in the country in the number of MSMEs – 35 lakh registered MSMEs across multiple sectors from auto to textile to electronics ply their trade in the southern state. These MSMEs employ 2.47 crore people, as per state government data.
The Tamil Nadu Semiconductor Mission 2030 was announced during the State Budget 2025–2026. Under this mission, the focus was to be on promoting fabless chip companies, semiconductor equipment manufacturing, and to invest in the development of a highly skilled workforce to meet global industry demands.
The Semiconductor Mission is expected to create a range of high-paying technical roles such as process engineers, fab technicians, and fab maintenance professionals.
The proposed Semiconductor Centre will come up at the Central Polytechnic Campus in Chennai. Around 4,500 candidates are expected to be trained through specialised modules in a 2–6 week course. Training modules will focus on practical application in sectors such as electric vehicles, data centres, and space technology.
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