India’s Semiconductor Push: Foundries, Packaging, and the Talent Gap

India’s semiconductor mission is now aiming for vertical depth—moving from assembly and testing into domestic wafer fabrication, advanced packaging, and chiplet integration. The ambition: secure a slice of the global $1T semiconductor market by 2030 without being hostage to foreign fabs.

Beyond ATMP: Full-Stack Foundry Aspirations

Most announced projects are in ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking, and Packaging). But India’s policy push is luring joint ventures for sub-65nm fabs. While EUV and advanced nodes remain distant, the sweet spot is mature nodes (28nm–65nm) that power automotive, IoT, and industrial systems.

Packaging Innovation as a Differentiator

With the rise of chiplets and heterogeneous integration, advanced packaging is a high-value segment India can dominate faster than full-node fabs. R&D in 2.5D/3D packaging, fan-out wafer-level packaging, and thermal management could create exportable IP.

Design-Led, Fab-Enabled

India already has a robust chip design ecosystem—serving global clients in EDA, IP blocks, and verification. The challenge is converting design talent into domestic tape-outs. Government-backed shuttle programs for prototyping could reduce fab dependency and accelerate product cycles for startups.

The Talent Bottleneck

Scaling fabs requires process engineers, lithography specialists, and yield analysts—roles India currently lacks in volume. Bridging this gap demands semiconductor-focused curricula, industry apprenticeships, and exchange programs with leading foundries in Taiwan, Korea, and the US.

The bata takeaway

Owning a fab is only part of the equation—owning the ecosystem matters more. Design, packaging, and process talent form the flywheel. Without them, billions in CapEx risk becoming underutilized infrastructure.