The Indian government said companies have expressed interest in investing around 1 trillion rupees, or about $11bn to $12bn (£8.2bn to £9bn) in the country’s second-phase semiconductor programme.

The second-phase investment push is to focus on chip design, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, fabrication plants, advanced packaging, research and development and talent development, officials said at the Semicon India 2026 conference in New Delhi.

“The investment numbers that we are seeing, as of today, are of the order of 1 lakh crore rupees or about $11bn to $12bn,” said electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in an address at the conference.

Second phase

The estimates are based on discussions with companies that are in some cases not ready to disclose their plans publicly, he said.

India announced the $13.4bn second-phase programme in July to boost initial efforts under the first-phase $10bn subsidy effort that has helped companies including Tata Group and Micron Technology set up fabrication and assembly plants in the country.

The investments by unnamed companies are to be made over the next two or three years, Vaishnaw said.

Chip supply chain

Some of the companies that began initiatives under phase one, such as Micron and the chip unit of Murugappa Group have begun commercial production, he said.

Companies such as US chip manufacturing equipment companies Lam Research and Applied Materials have made commitments to India under the programme.

At the conference, Tata Electronics signed deals across the semiconductor supply chain, including a partnership with the Netherlands’ Nexperia across wafer manufacturing, assembly and testing for its fab in western Gujarat and its Assam assembly facility.