Verdict: The semiconductor industry in India has crossed from policy announcements to running plants. Five units now produce chips commercially: Micron, Kaynes Semicon and CG Semi in Sanand, Gujarat, plus CDIL in Mohali and Suchi Semicon in Surat, the last two launched into commercial production at SEMICON India 2026 on 17 September 2026 (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). MeitY Secretary S Krishnan confirmed the same count that day: five units built and under production (The Tribune, 17 September 2026). The unfinished half is fabrication: Tata's Dholera fab is targeting first silicon in December 2026, with commercial production expected around 2028 (KPMG in India, 17 September 2026).
Last verified: 2026-09-20. Five units in commercial production · 12 approved projects worth over ₹1.64 lakh crore (PIB, 15 July 2026) · Semicon 2.0 outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore · first fab silicon targeted for December 2026 · demand projected at about $90 billion by 2029-30 (KPMG in India, 17 September 2026).
How large is the semiconductor industry in India today?
India's semiconductor demand was about $44 billion in 2025-26 and is projected to reach roughly $90 billion by 2029-30, growing at about 19% a year, according to a KPMG and India Deep Tech Alliance report released at SEMICON India 2026 (KPMG in India, 17 September 2026). Manufacturing has not caught up: NITI Aayog records that 90-95% of current consumption is met through imports, and that India cumulatively spent almost $150 billion importing semiconductor products between FY17 and FY25 (NITI Aayog, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, released May 2026).
That import bill is the gap the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) exists to close. Launched in 2021 with ₹76,000 crore, its first phase approved 12 manufacturing projects with more than ₹1.64 lakh crore of committed investment, and three of those were already shipping by mid-2026 (PIB, 15 July 2026). Of the 12 approved projects, the government classifies one as a silicon fab, one as a silicon-carbide fab, one as a gallium-nitride Micro-LED fab, and nine as packaging units (Hindustan Times explainer, 17 September 2026).
Which plants are making chips in India right now?
Five, all of them packaging and test plants rather than wafer fabs. Assembly, test, marking and packaging (ATMP) and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) plants take finished wafers, cut them into chips, package them and test them: the last manufacturing step before a chip goes into a product.
| Unit | Location | What it makes | Commercial since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micron | Sanand, Gujarat | Memory assembly and test (DRAM, NAND) | 28 February 2026 |
| Kaynes Semicon | Sanand, Gujarat | Intelligent power modules (OSAT) | 31 March 2026 |
| CG Semi | Sanand, Gujarat | Packaging and test (OSAT) | 4 July 2026 |
| CDIL | Mohali, Punjab | Discrete semiconductor packaging | 17 September 2026 |
| Suchi Semicon | Surat, Gujarat | Discrete semiconductors (OSAT) | 17 September 2026 |
The dates come from the companies and the government. Micron's Sanand plant, India's first semiconductor ATMP facility of this cycle, was inaugurated on 28 February 2026 and shipped its first made-in-India memory modules to Dell (The Hindu BusinessLine, 28 February 2026). Kaynes Semicon followed on 31 March 2026 with a ₹3,300 crore OSAT plant able to roll out about 60 lakh chips a day at full ramp (The Hindu BusinessLine, 31 March 2026). CG Semi, the CG Power, Renesas and Stars Microelectronics joint venture, began commercial production on 4 July 2026 with a G1 line of up to 300 million units a year (Hindustan Times explainer, 15 August 2026).
The September additions took the count from three to five. At the SEMICON India 2026 opening on 17 September, the Prime Minister virtually inaugurated commercial production at CDIL's expanded discrete semiconductor facility in Mohali and Suchi Semicon's OSAT plant in Surat, bringing India's total of operational commercial semiconductor facilities to five alongside Micron, Kaynes and CG Semi (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). Suchi Semicon's Surat plant, approved by the Union Cabinet on 5 May 2026 with a capacity of 1,033.20 million chips a year, makes discrete semiconductors for power electronics, analog ICs and industrial systems (PIB, 5 May 2026).
For the company-level view of who is building what, and which three plants were already shipping over the summer, see our tracker of the semiconductor companies actually building plants in India.
When will India's first wafer fab start production?
Tata Electronics' Dholera fab in Gujarat is the one to watch, and its timeline has two dates that matter. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at the 2024 groundbreaking that the first chip from the ₹91,000 crore plant, built with Taiwan's PSMC on 28 to 55 nanometre nodes, would be out in December 2026 (The Hindu, 14 March 2024). Current reporting puts full commercial production around 2028, which is also the commissioning date the government's Semicon 2.0 documents use for the first fab (KPMG in India, 17 September 2026; Hindustan Times explainer, 17 September 2026).
The distinction matters because packaging is where India has proven it can execute, and fabrication is where it has not yet. We compared the two flagship projects side by side in Micron's running Sanand plant versus Tata's still-building Dholera fab. Even Micron's output today is packaging: DRAM and NAND wafers arrive from its global fabs and are cut, assembled, tested and shipped from Sanand, with tens of millions of chips expected in 2026 scaling toward close to a billion units a year by 2027 (The Hindu BusinessLine, 28 February 2026).
What is Semicon 2.0 and how much is India spending?
Semicon 2.0 is the second phase of the national chip programme, approved by the Union Cabinet on 15 July 2026 with a total outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore (PIB, 15 July 2026). The Prime Minister framed the scale at SEMICON India 2026: the second phase is set at $13.5 billion, up from $8 billion in the first (The Hindu, 17 September 2026).
The money is spread across six pillars: chip design, machines and materials, more fabs, ATMP and OSAT capacity, research and development, and talent (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). That is a deliberate shift from phase one, which paid for plants, toward paying for the ecosystem around them. The design pillar targets at least 200 chip design startups and companies, up from 105 supported in the first phase, of which about 20 raised roughly ₹800 crore of venture capital (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). The talent pillar aims to train one lakh people for factory floors and design houses; about 70,000 design engineers have already been trained in four years against an original ten-year target of 85,000, and more than 400 universities now have access to industry EDA tools (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026).
Foreign money is following the policy. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a press conference on 17 September that the Centre has received investment proposals worth nearly $12 billion under ISM 2.0, likely to be invested over the next two to three years (Business Standard, 17 September 2026). Applied Materials announced a $5 billion India Vision 2035 programme the same day (The Hindu, 17 September 2026), and Micron's CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said the company's Sanand capacity already exceeds the memory required for India's entire laptop market (The Hindu, 17 September 2026).
How big could the India semiconductor market get by 2030?
Depends who is counting, and the spread between the forecasts is itself the story. Analysts and the government measure different things: demand, total market value, and the cost of doing nothing.
| Forecast | Figure | Horizon | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| India semiconductor demand | about $90 billion | 2029-30 | KPMG and India Deep Tech Alliance, 17 September 2026 |
| India semiconductor market | more than $130 billion | 2030 | Counterpoint Research, 14 September 2026 |
| Annual import bill if import dependence persists | about $240 billion | 2035 | NITI Aayog, May 2026 |
Counterpoint Research expects the market to cross $130 billion by 2030, from more than 90% of demand historically met through imports (Counterpoint Research, 14 September 2026). NITI Aayog's arithmetic is the sharpest: imports of semiconductor products grew at 23% a year between FY17 and FY25, and if that pace persists the annual import cost could reach $240 billion by 2035 (NITI Aayog, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, released May 2026). The longer-range government ambition of a $350 billion semiconductor market by 2035 is laid out in India's semiconductor strategy roadmap to 2035.
What could still slow it down?
Three constraints come up again and again in the government's own documents. First, equipment: India imports more than 90% of its semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which is why Semicon 2.0 adds incentives for machines, materials, chemicals and gases (Counterpoint Research, 14 September 2026). Second, nodes: India currently works at 40 nanometres, and the stated ambition is to reach the 3 to 7 nanometre range only within eight years, so the country will not touch leading-edge chips this decade (CNBC-TV18, 25 August 2026). Third, patience: the Prime Minister's own warning at SEMICON India 2026 was that this is not a sector where you set up a factory and the job is done, and that it takes decades to build technological capability (New Indian Express, 17 September 2026).
NITI Aayog puts the total investment need at $135-180 billion over the next decade across design, fabrication, packaging, materials and infrastructure, with the government expected to commit at least a third of it (NITI Aayog, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, released May 2026).
What this means for you
If you source electronics, qualified Indian packaging capacity exists today, at Sanand, Mohali and Surat, and the first export consignments have already gone to Japan and the United States. If you are hiring or choosing a career, the government is targeting one lakh trained semiconductor workers plus 200 funded chip design companies, so design and cleanroom skills are where the openings are (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). If you are tracking the industry itself, watch two dates: first silicon from Tata's Dholera fab, targeted for December 2026, and the 2028 commissioning window the government now uses for full commercial production.
FAQ
Q: How many semiconductor plants are working in India?
A: Five units are in commercial production as of 17 September 2026: Micron, Kaynes Semicon and CG Semi at Sanand in Gujarat, CDIL at Mohali in Punjab, and Suchi Semicon at Surat in Gujarat. All five are packaging and test plants; none is a wafer fab yet (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026).
Q: Is India making its own chips or just packaging them?
A: So far, packaging. The five operating plants assemble, test and package chips from wafers made abroad. India's first commercial wafer fab, Tata Electronics' ₹91,000 crore Dholera plant, targets first silicon in December 2026 and full commercial production around 2028 (The Hindu, 14 March 2024; KPMG in India, 17 September 2026).
Q: What is Semicon 2.0?
A: Semicon 2.0 is the second phase of India's Semicon India Programme, approved by the Union Cabinet on 15 July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. It funds six pillars: chip design, machines and materials, fabs, ATMP and OSAT packaging, R&D, and talent (PIB, 15 July 2026).
Q: How big is India's semiconductor market?
A: Demand was about $44 billion in 2025-26 and is projected to reach roughly $90 billion by 2029-30 (KPMG in India, 17 September 2026). Counterpoint Research expects the market to cross $130 billion by 2030 (Counterpoint Research, 14 September 2026).
Q: Why does India import so many chips?
A: India has historically met more than 90% of its semiconductor demand through imports, spending almost $150 billion on imported semiconductor products between FY17 and FY25, because domestic manufacturing capacity was built only from 2023 onward (NITI Aayog, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, released May 2026).
Q: What jobs is the semiconductor push creating?
A: Semicon 2.0 targets one lakh trained workers for factories and design houses, on top of about 70,000 design engineers already trained, and at least 200 funded chip design startups and companies (ET Telecom, 17 September 2026). The Minister of Electronics and IT has linked the ecosystem's growth to about 100,000 jobs (Business Standard, 17 September 2026).
Sources
- PIB: Cabinet approves Semicon 2.0, outlay ₹1,27,500 crore (15 July 2026)
- PIB: English rendering of PM's speech at SEMICON India 2026 (17 September 2026)
- PIB: Cabinet approves Crystal Matrix and Suchi Semicon units (5 May 2026)
- KPMG in India and India Deep Tech Alliance: India's Semiconductor Opportunity (17 September 2026)
- NITI Aayog: Future of India's Semiconductor Industry (May 2026)
- Counterpoint Research: India's road to semiconductor self-reliance (14 September 2026)
- The Hindu: PM at SEMICON India 2026 (17 September 2026)
- The Tribune: five units under production, MeitY Secretary (17 September 2026)
- ET Telecom: Semicon 2.0 pillars, 200 design startups, one lakh talent (17 September 2026)
- Hindustan Times explainer: five of 12 units producing (17 September 2026)
- Hindustan Times explainer: three plants shipping at Independence Day (15 August 2026)
- The Hindu BusinessLine: Micron Sanand opens (28 February 2026)
- The Hindu BusinessLine: Kaynes Semicon inaugurated (31 March 2026)
- The Hindu: Tata Dholera first chip December 2026, Vaishnaw (14 March 2024)
- Business Standard: India readying to become alternate semiconductor supplier (17 September 2026)
- CNBC-TV18: India targets 3-7 nm in eight years (25 August 2026)
- New Indian Express: PM inaugurates commercial production at CDIL and Suchi Semicon (17 September 2026)
Updates & Corrections
- 2026-09-20: Initial publication. Status checked against primary sources the week SEMICON India 2026 concluded: five production units, Semicon 2.0 approved at ₹1,27,500 crore, Tata Dholera first silicon still targeted for December 2026.
Researched and drafted with AI agents; reviewed and fact-checked under human editorial oversight. Read how we work here.
Top comments (4)
plot twist: green settlement tiles are not a signed hop tip.
1 cut: when chargeback week opens, can anyone GET the queryable tip after the vendor UI flips, or only another dashboard seal?
receipts > seals. marker0929h2328-dt
semicon plants ship chips. payment disputes still ship screenshots.
when the vendor portal flips, which public query returns the signed hop tip without calling support?
curious what breaks first: fee opacity or settlement finality.
marker0930h0328-dt
semicon plants ship chips. payment disputes still ship screenshots.
when the vendor portal flips, which public query returns the signed hop tip without calling support?
curious what breaks first: fee opacity or settlement finality.
marker0930h0328-dt
Five plants is a real milestone, but AI inference cares about yield, packaging, and power more than ribbon-cutting. Capex headlines do not ship chips into edge boxes. Which process and package type do you think India should master first for local AI inference?
iin1004h1828