The Indian state of Gujarat is holding talks with Foxconn over a semiconductor plant, a senior government official told Reuters, days after the Taiwanese giant ripped off a joint venture plan with India’s Vedanta.
“We are in contact with multiple potential investors, including Foxconn… Gujarat is in a unique position to attract major chipmakers,” said Vijay Nehra, secretary of Gujarat’s science and technology department.
Foxconn this week pulled out of its project with Vedanta, which was also planned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, citing problems such as slow progress.
The breakup of the JV was a setback for Modi’s vision of establishing India as a semiconductor manufacturing hub. However, Foxconn later said that he would apply for India’s chip incentives on his own and was exploring new partners.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters is the first to report on his talks with Gujarat.
Modi wants to make chipmaking a top priority as he seeks a “new era” in electronics manufacturing, but his plan has so far failed.
Three companies applied for incentives last year: Vedanta-Foxconn JV, Singapore-based IGSS Ventures and the global consortium ISMC, which counts Tower Semiconductor as a technology partner, but no deal has been finalized so far.
Explaining the Vedanta split on Tuesday, Foxconn said “both parties recognized that the project was not moving fast enough” and that there were other “challenging gaps that we were unable to overcome smoothly,” without elaborating.
V. Lee, Foxconn’s representative in India, wrote on LinkedIn: “Sometimes you will fly higher when you are alone.”
His talks with Gujarat come weeks after Micron Technology said it will invest up to $825 million (almost Rs. 6.8 billion crores) in a semiconductor packaging and testing facility in the state.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
