Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra meets Minister Piyush Goyal, discusses investments plans in India

Ahead of Semicon India 2023, President and CEO of Micron Technologies Sanjay Mehrotra met Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal. The two discussed the $2.75-billion assembly and testing plant Micron plans to build here. The two also discussed India’s growing semiconductor ecosystem and the opportunities it will present.

After the meeting, Goyal tweeted:  “Met Sanjay Mehrotra, President & CEO of Micron Technology. Discussed Micron’s recent investment plans in the country and how India’s growing semiconductor ecosystem is poised to make it one of the global leaders in the sector.”

In a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream to make India a semiconductor hub, US-memory chip Micron has decided to setup up a new semiconductor assembly and test facility in India. The news came during PM Modi’s state visit to the US, where he met key leaders of the semiconductor industry, including Mehrotra. He invited the latter to boost semiconductor manufacturing in India. Micron will set up a new manufacturing unit for both DRAM and NAND products in Gujrat, which will address demand from domestic and international markets.

According to Micron, phased construction of the new assembly and test facility in Gujarat is expected to begin in 2023. Phase 1, which will include 500,000 square feet of planned cleanroom space, will start to become operational in late 2024, and Micron will ramp capacity gradually over time in line with global demand trends. Micron expects Phase 2 of the project, which would include construction of a facility similar in scale to Phase 1, to start towards the second half of the decade.

The company will invest up to $825 million over the two phases of the project and will create up to 5,000 new direct Micron jobs and 15,000 community jobs over the next several years. Under the government's “Modified Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) Scheme,” Micron will receive 50% fiscal support for the total project cost from the central government and incentives amounting to 20% of the total project cost from Gujarat. The combined investment by Micron and the two government entities over the course of both phases will be up to $2.75 billion.

Government support will help fund the project and facilitate access to essential semiconductor infrastructure and resources to drive innovation and enhance local talent development, says the company. Micron’s new facility will focus on transforming wafers into ball grid array (BGA) integrated circuit packages, memory modules and solid-state drives.

It will build and operate the assembly and test facility in accordance with the company’s sustainability goals and in line with local and global environmental commitments. Additionally, the facility will use advanced water-saving technologies to enable Zero Liquid Discharge.

Mehrotra is in India to address the second edition of Semicon India scheduled in Gandhinagar between July 28-30, 2023. The event is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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