Taiwan’s Foxconn withdrew from a semiconductor joint venture with mining baron Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta as the company struggled to secure a technology partner to make chips used in mobile phones for refrigerators and cars.
In a statement, Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, said it “has determined that it will not advance the joint venture with Vedanta.” Agarwal’s metal-to-oil conglomerate responded by saying he was “fully committed to his semiconductor manufacturing project and we have aligned other partners to establish India’s first smelter.” However, he did not give details of the new partners.
Foxconn, best known for assembling iPhones and other Apple products, and Vedanta last year signed a deal to set up semiconductor and display production plants in Gujarat.
European chipmaker STMicroelectronics was being hired as a technology partner for the company, but talks were stalled.
Most of the world’s chips are made in a handful of countries and India, which expects its semiconductor market to be worth $63 billion (nearly Rs. 5,20,300 crore) by 2026, is a late entrant. .
Three applications, one from the Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture, one from a global consortium of ISMC and one from Singapore-based IGSS Ventures, were received in response to the government’s incentive scheme for local semiconductor manufacturing.
The other two apps haven’t made much progress either.
Last week, Vedanta announced that it will acquire the glass display and semiconductor units of group company Twin Star Technologies.
It is to buy 100 percent of Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductors and Vedanta Displays from Twin Star, a unit of Volcan Investments, Vedanta’s parent company.
In a statement on Monday, Foxconn said: “In order to explore more diverse development opportunities, by mutual agreement, Foxconn has determined that it will not advance the joint venture with Vedanta.” Foxconn said it is “working to remove the Foxconn name from what is now a wholly owned entity of Vedanta.”
“Foxconn has no connection to the entity and efforts to maintain its original name will cause confusion among future interested parties,” Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) said.
The statement said that for more than a year, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and Vedanta have worked hard to bring a great semiconductor idea to life. It has been a fruitful experience that can strongly position both companies in the future.
“Foxconn is confident in the direction of Indian semiconductor development. We will continue to strongly support the government’s ‘Make In India’ ambitions and establish a diversity of local partnerships to meet stakeholder needs,” he said.
After the withdrawal, Vedanta claimed that it is fully committed to its semiconductor project and has aligned other partners to set up India’s first smelter.
Vedanta said it has redoubled efforts to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for semiconductors, saying India remains instrumental in repositioning global semiconductor supply chains.
“Vedanta reiterates that it is fully committed to its semiconductor manufacturing project and we have aligned other partners to establish India’s first foundry. We will continue to grow our semiconductor team and have the license for production grade technology for 40nm of a leading embedded device manufacturer (IDM),” Vedanta said in a statement.
The company had announced plans to establish its chip plant in Gujarat with an investment of around Rs. 1.5 lakh crores.
“We will soon also acquire a license for the 28nm production grade. Vedanta has redoubled its efforts to fulfill the Prime Minister’s vision for semiconductors and India remains instrumental in repositioning global semiconductor supply chains,” says the release.
