Qualcomm, a major US
semiconductor company, is increasing its investments in India significantly more than its competitors AMD and Micron. The aim is to take advantage of the enormous business opportunities available in India. Savi Soin, the President of Qualcomm India, has also stated that the company plans to collaborate with a few chip manufacturers as part of the Indian government's incentive scheme for semiconductors.
"Our investments in India have grown in double digits year over year in the last five years," Soin said.
"Qualcomm spends what AMD is going to spend in the next four or five years in four months. We spend in eight months what Micron is going to do over the decade," Soin said. "The scale of Qualcomm's commitment into India is massive."
In the previous year, AMD had announced its plan to invest $400 million in India over the next five years. Meanwhile, Micron has pledged to invest $825 million in phases for a new chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat. The government has already approved Micron's request to receive incentives, which will increase the total investment in the facility to $2.75 billion.
Qualcomm is in talks with
chip manufacturers to make chipsets under the government's incentive scheme. The Tata Group and HCL are planning to enter the
chipset fabrication industry.
"We have been working confidentially with a bunch of players," Soin said without divulging the names of potential partners.
"Given our deep technical expertise to bring up processes elsewhere, we have that expertise to help whichever new fab cap comes, and it has to be price competitive. We will bring our business and volume. We have been working with all the merchant proposals that are going on right now," he said.