Gujarat ‘shocked’ other states by attracting Micron Technologies’ semiconductor unit: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

“This has shocked every other state, especially Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which have strong electronics sector. Suddenly out of the blue, Gujarat has come…and taken the first big investment. There is a big advantage in being the first mover,” he said during an interaction with media persons. Gujarat has signed a Rs 22,500 crore agreement with Micron to set up a semiconductor assembly, testing, marking and packaging facility in Sanand near Ahmedabad.

When asked about the status of the Vedanta-Foxconn project which was announced for Gujarat last year, Chandrasekhar said, “Vedanta-Foxconn were partners. They had submitted a proposal for a 28 nanometre (nm) fab and they were trying to get a technology partner because both are not fab companies. They were not able to get that and decided to part ways. They will now independently submit proposals for 40 nm. They have met us and they have talked to us. This doesn’t need to be seen as a setback as both will be doing separate investments.”

The minister said proposals from Vedanta and Foxconn are expected to be “reduced” in terms of value as the 40 nm fab will be “cheaper” and it will mean “less capex”.

“A 40 nanometre fab represents a generation of technology that is very stable. There is very little risk of starting with it. We have taken a decision that we will encourage legacy nodes. We do not want the first fab to fail and we don’t want ecosystem to be too demanding. Secondly, 40 nm fab has a huge demand for all the sectors that are booming in India, except maybe the cutting edge devices,” Chandrasekhar said. “40nm is a strategy to go to a mature technology that will easily be adapted to the first fab in India,” he added.

The first edition of Semicon India was held in Bengaluru last year.