The Center will reopen the window to apply for its Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor manufacturing plan, as the three applications it had received in the previous window last year ran into obstacles in setting up their respective plants.
The government opened the first window for entities to apply to the scheme in January 2022 and closed it in 45 days. The new window, which will open on June 1, will remain until December 2024.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said the indian express The window to reapply to the scheme has been further extended so the government can receive more proposals after sweetening the scheme last September by allowing flat tax support of 50 per cent of the project cost for semiconductor factories in the United States. technological nodes and the manufacture of screens.
The government had received three proposals to set up a factory in the country -from a Vedanta-foxconn joint venture, the international consortium ISMC and Singapore-based IGSS Ventures. However, for now, the Vedanta-Foxconn proposal is the only one the Center has on the table, and even so it has not been able to find a partner that can license the technology to manufacture 28-nanometer chips.
Vedanta-Foxconn is reported to have initially applied for a 28-nanometer semiconductor manufacturing plant in January 2022, but has yet to tell the government whether it has secured the technology. Neither Vedanta nor Foxconn have the technology to make such chips and will need to be licensed by another company. Vedanta, the mining and metals conglomerate, is struggling to reduce its debt.
Vedanta will have to resubmit a manufacturing schematic application detailing its plan to produce chips with a node size of 40 nanometers, a senior government official said, requesting anonymity. The joint venture has indicated to the government that it is in the process of licensing node-sized manufacturing-grade technology from Netherlands-based STMicroelectronics or GlobalFoundries.
Vedanta’s talks with STMicroelectronics are known to be currently deadlocked over the latter’s level of involvement in the joint venture, whether it just license its technology or take a stake in the consortium.
If the joint venture manages to secure the right technology partners for the project, its 40-nanometer plant is expected to cost around $3.5 billion to $4 billion.
According to the official, after accounting for the support for the Center and the subsidies offered by the Gujarat government, the plant is expected to cost the joint venture around $1.2 billion. Vedanta did not respond to a request for comment until posting.
According to the official, ISMC, backed by Abu Dhabi-based Next Orbit and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor, has asked the Center not to consider its proposal due to a pending merger between Intel and semiconductor tower. The merger continues to be delayed for more than a year after its first announcement.
The Singapore-based IGSS Venture’s proposal was deemed not up to the task by the government advisory committee and, as a result, is reportedly taking a backseat.