Semicon India 2026: Amid ‘weaponisation’ of supply chains, PM pitches India as ‘credible’ destination for chip manufacturing
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at the inauguration of SEMICON India 2026 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi on September 17, 2026. | Photo credit: PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched India as a “new and credible place” for electronics manufacturing and urged global chipmakers to consider the country’s potential to free electronics from the “weaponization” of supply chains.
Also read | PM works with the chip industry ahead of Semicon
“This is not a sector where you set up a factory and the work is done,” said Mr. Modi, who inaugurated Semicon India 2026. “Wherever the semiconductor ecosystems have been built in the world, the entire ecosystem has come together only after decades of hard work. But India, with your cooperation, has worked simultaneously on chip design, manufacturing, device manufacturing, testing and testing of chip materials.”
Mr. Modi’s address came days after the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission, which has an outlay of ₹1.27 crore, was announced.
The Prime Minister declared that India is the “mother of democracy”. “When such a country succeeds in a critical sector, it strengthens the supply chain of the entire world. And today, when supply chains are weaponized, its importance becomes much more important. We should also look at these developments taking place in India from this broader perspective,” he said.
Semicon India 2026 brought together semiconductor and electronics companies from India and other countries. Speaking at the event, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government plans to train one million people who will be a “global talent pool” and can be “immediately employed in the factories that are coming up in India”.
Mr. Vaishnaw added that the government will target at least 200 startups and chip design companies in India as part of the next phase of the country’s semiconductor mission, Semicon 2.0. He said Indian chip design firms have an established presence in the global industry as they require little in-house manufacturing capacity.
Global industry organization SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha estimated that the semiconductor industry will exceed $1.3 trillion this year and $2 trillion by 2030.
Chip industry
Leaders from the semiconductor industry expressed hope for India’s trajectory and its role in their global plans. Applied Materials has committed to investing $5 billion over the next five years to expand its research and development center and supply chain.
“We started commercial production at Sanand earlier this year,” said Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. “Our current manufacturing capacity already exceeds the memory required for the entire Indian notebook market… The India Semiconductor Mission and now ISM 2.0 have given the industry a foundation it didn’t have before.”
Infineon CEO Jochen Hanebeck called India “a market of enormous importance” and praised the “pace of progress across the Indian ecosystem”. Noting that his firm has increased hiring in India by 28%, Mr. Hanebeck said that “(w)e see great potential for India to strengthen its position in the global semiconductor value chain.”
“India is evolving from a major chip consumer and chip design center to a global semiconductor powerhouse,” said Benjamin Hein, CEO of Merck Electronics.
Lam Research COO Sesha Varadarajan announced that his firm is investing ₹10,000 crore to “set up our first silicon component manufacturing facility in the country” and that we are “expanding our partnerships with suppliers across India in specialty materials, precision components, gases, chemicals, metrology and manufacturing services”.
Wayne Allan, chief executive of Dutch firm ASML, which makes extreme ultraviolet lithography machines essential for advanced chip manufacturing, said “India will become more and more important globally” as the chip ecosystem continues to develop.
Published – 17 Sep 2026 12:52 IST