Micron to Start Plant Construction in August, Domestic Microchip Production to Begin by 2024-End: Report

The government will break ground next month on its first semiconductor assembly plant and begin producing its first domestically manufactured microchips by the end of 2024, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said Micron Technology would start construction in August on a $2.75 billion chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat, the newspaper reported.

Last month, Micron signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to build a semiconductor plant, its first factory in the country.

Micron said last week it will invest up to $825 million (roughly Rs. 6,760 crore) in the facility. With support from the Indian central government and the state of Gujarat, the total investment will be $2.75 billion, it added. The facility will be constructed in Sanand, near the city of Ahmedabad in 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. A second phase of the project is expected to start toward the second half of the decade, it said. The two phases together will create up to 5,000 new direct Micron jobs.

Micron Technology's plans come as the White House presses US chip companies to invest in India with talks ongoing about possible further investments, US administration officials told Reuters last month.

US President Joe Biden wants domestic companies to decrease the risks of doing business in China while better integrating the US economy with that of the world's largest democracy, one US official said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023