SEMICON India 2026: five chip packaging plants now in production, and $13.5 billion for phase two

India’s semiconductor ambitions looked noticeably more concrete at SEMICON India 2026, held from 17 to 19 September at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi. The fifth edition drew more than 600 exhibitors, around 300 of them international.

The headline numbers

Opening the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India now has five chip assembly and packaging plants in commercial production, and reiterated the government’s commitment of $13.5 billion for the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 2.0), according to EE Times.

Assembly, testing and packaging (often shortened to ATMP or OSAT) is the stage where finished silicon wafers are cut into individual chips, packaged and tested. It is less capital-intensive than fabrication, and it is where India’s industry is getting started.

The fab is still coming

The harder, more expensive step is fabrication, making the chips themselves. India’s first commercial fab, Tata Electronics’ 300-millimetre facility in Dholera, Gujarat, is still under construction, EE Times reported. It also noted that one fab scheduled to begin production in 2028 has already booked a large share of its capacity.

Deals and partnerships

The event produced 25 MoUs and announcements across manufacturing, materials, packaging, logistics, design and workforce development. Among them:

• Tata Electronics partnerships with INOX Air Products for high-purity gases and Sumitomo Chemical for high-purity chemicals, both essential inputs for its Dholera fab.
• A skilling collaboration between Lam Research and the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India.
• NIELIT partnerships covering semiconductor design education and ATMP training.

L&T Semiconductor used the event to unveil 40 products, including its first silicon carbide (SiC) platform.

Why it matters

Chips are the foundation of everything from phones to AI data centres, and their production is concentrated in a handful of places. Countries that can make or package chips gain economic resilience and bargaining power. India’s pitch rests on a large domestic market, government subsidies and an engineering workforce that already does much of the world’s chip design.

The shift this year was from pledges to plants. The next test is Dholera.

Read our view: India’s chip story is finally about factories.