Semicon 2026 opens with Rs 1 lakh crore investment push, major global commitments

India’s semiconductor ambitions received a major boost on the opening day of SEMICON India 2026 on Thursday, with the government announcing investment commitments of around Rs 1 lakh crore under Semicon 2.0 and global technology companies unveiling major manufacturing, research and supply-chain plans. The three-day event, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi, brought together more than 600 companies from 52 countries as India sought to move beyond chip assembly and packaging towards a deeper domestic semiconductor ecosystem spanning fabrication, equipment, materials, design and research.

Rs 1 lakh crore pipeline

Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said investment proposals worth $11-12 billion, or around Rs 1 lakh crore, had already been received under Semicon 2.0. The proposed investments cover equipment, materials, gases, chemicals and substrates and are expected to materialise over the next two to three years. The second phase of the semiconductor programme, approved in July with an outlay of Rs 1.27 lakh crore, is built around six areas — chip design, equipment and materials, new fabrication facilities, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent creation.

The fresh commitments build on Semicon 1.0, under which 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects involving cumulative investment of more than Rs 1.64 lakh crore have been approved. Five of these facilities have entered commercial production. The government has also approved 24 chip-design projects worth around Rs 900 crore, while more than one lakh engineers across 500 organisations have been provided access to advanced design tools.

Global majors deepen bets

US semiconductor equipment giant Applied Materials announced plans to invest $5 billion in India over the next decade under its India Vision 2035 programme. The company plans to establish a 140-acre engineering and research campus and substantially expand its domestic supply chain. Lam Research separately outlined plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore to establish India’s first silicon-component manufacturing facility, adding another critical layer to the domestic semiconductor value chain.

Tata Electronics, which is developing India’s first major commercial semiconductor fabrication facility at Dholera in Gujarat, announced 16 memoranda of understanding with companies and institutions from India, Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States. The partnerships span equipment, materials, chemicals, infrastructure and other parts of the chip-manufacturing supply chain, reflecting a wider attempt to build supporting industries around semiconductor plants rather than depend heavily on imports.

From fabs to ecosystem

Modi said India’s semiconductor journey had moved from “files to factories”, arguing that the country was entering a phase in which projects conceived under the first semiconductor mission were beginning to translate into commercial production. He called for greater private-sector investment in research and development and said India wanted to establish itself as a dependable part of global semiconductor supply chains.

India already accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the global semiconductor design workforce, while its domestic chip demand is expected to rise sharply with the expansion of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, telecommunications, defence electronics and data centres. The challenge now is to translate investment announcements into operating factories and build capabilities in areas where India remains heavily import-dependent. The first day of SEMICON India 2026 suggested that the policy focus is increasingly shifting from attracting individual semiconductor plants to creating the industrial network needed to sustain them.