In February 2022, Vedanta and Foxconn announced a partnership to build semiconductor fab units in India. Six months later, the joint venture signed two memorandums of understanding with the Gujarat government to establish a semiconductor fabrication unit, a display fabrication unit, and a semiconductor assembly and testing unit in Ahmedabad.
And now, according to a new report from ET, this joint venture is on the verge of bringing in European chipmaker STMicroelectronics as a technology partner in their proposed semiconductor chip manufacturing unit in India.
Because these projects involve a state government subsidy of 10-25% and a national government subsidy of 50%, partnering with a licensed semiconductor technology maker with necessary chip manufacturing experience is one of the prerequisites for project approval and incentive grant.
To remind you, the Vedanta-Foxconn consortium is one of five applicants seeking government incentives, and this collaboration would help them win.
Aside from that, the report claims that Foxconn is “committed to India” and will invest roughly $70-80 billion in chip manufacturing. This improves the local semiconductor manufacturing scenario in India.
A Vedanta spokesperson did not confirm or deny the report, but did tell ET,
The government is keen that the project goes ahead with the best technology partners. And we are aligned with the government on this.
Together with Foxconn, we are in talks with several potential technology partners to make this project a huge success not just for us but for the nation.
We should get more information regarding the matter in the coming weeks.