India and the United States have signed an agreement to set up semiconductor foundry plants to make chips used in “national security, next-generation communications and green energy applications,” according to a joint India-US fact sheet.
US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi both hailed the “groundbreaking deal”, the first project in which the US military has agreed to partner with India on highly valuable technology.
The factory will focus on “advanced sensing, communications and power electronics” in support of the Indian Semiconductor Mission and a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semiconductor, 3rdiTech and the US Space Command, according to the statement. “It will be set up for the manufacture of infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors,” the statement added.
A parallel effort between India and the US civil nuclear agreement, the facility, named “Shakti” (meaning “power”), will mark not only the first technology partnership between an Indian company and the US Space Command, but also a first for the Quad, a four-nation strategic security forum that also includes Japan and Australia.
The company said it will focus on three pillars essential to modern warfare: advanced sensing, advanced communications, and high-voltage power electronics — three areas that are also seeing strong demand in commercial sectors such as rail, communications infrastructure, data centers, and green energy, the sources said.
Infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors fall under a category known as compound semiconductors. India’s current imports of these semiconductors for national security purposes stand at $1 billion annually, according to sources.
Describing the new arrangement as “breaking the glass ceiling” in tech diplomacy, sources said, “India and the US have signed multiple collaborations, from iCET to commerce memorandum of understanding to strategic trade dialogue, focused on critical technologies with special emphasis on semiconductors. This marks the first true semiconductor manufacturing project between India and the US. Other projects in the past have involved testing and assembly but this one raises the game and steps into true chip manufacturing, the holy grail of semiconductors.”
This technology partnership will put India among an elite few nations with the capability and know-how to manufacture such semiconductors domestically, the sources said, adding that it will provide a stable and reliable supply chain in one of the most crucial areas of national security technology.
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