Applied Materials to Invest $400 Million to Set Up New Engineering Centre in India

US semiconductor toolmaker Applied Materials will invest $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,300 crore) over four years in a new engineering centre in India, the company said on Thursday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the company's CEO Gary Dickerson in Washington on Wednesday and invited Applied to strengthen the chip industry in the country.

Applied's investment is among a flurry of announcements this week including General Electric's deal to jointly produce jet engines for the military with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and data storage chipmaker Micron's $825 million (roughly Rs. 6,760 crore) investment to build a new factory in India.

Modi also met Tesla CEO Elon Musk after which the automaker's top boss said the company will try to be in India "as soon as humanly possible."

The new center is expected to be located near the company's existing facility in Bengaluru and is likely to support more than $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,400 crore) of planned investments and create 500 new advanced engineering jobs, the company said.

Applied currently operates across six sites in India and works closely with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, two of the country's prestigious institutions.

US chipmaker Micron also announced Thursday it would invest up to $825 million (roughly Rs. 6,760 crore) in a new chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat, India, its first factory in the country.

Micron said that with support from the Indian central government and from the state of Gujarat, the total investment in the facility will be $2.75 billion (roughly Rs. 20,500 crores). Of that total, 50 percent will come from the Indian central government and 20 percent from the state of Gujarat.

Micron said construction of the new facility in Gujarat is expected to begin in 2023 and the first phase of the project will be operational in late 2024. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023