India’s semiconductor sector has secured one of its biggest international partnerships yet as Dutch chip-equipment giant ASML teamed up with Tata Electronics to support the company’s upcoming semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat. Notably, Tata’s Dholera project, estimated at around $11 billion, is expected to manufacture chips for sectors including automotive, telecom, AI, and consumer electronics. And ASML – whose lithography machines are used by companies like TSMC, Intel, and Samsung – will provide critical semiconductor manufacturing technology and expertise for the facility.
The Tata-ASML collaboration is being viewed as a foundational step toward building India’s first large-scale semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. The Dholera fabrication facility, being developed in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), is expected to focus initially on mature and speciality process nodes, including 28 nm, 40 nm, 55 nm, 90 nm, and 110 nm technologies. While these nodes are less advanced than the 2 nm and 3 nm processes currently pursued by TSMC and Samsung, they remain commercially critical because they power large portions of the global electronics industry.
Mature-node semiconductors are extensively used in automobiles, electric vehicles, industrial machinery, telecom equipment, IoT devices, display systems, power electronics, and defense hardware. Estimates suggest that around 70% of global semiconductor demand still depends on mature-node manufacturing because these chips prioritize reliability, power efficiency, and cost optimization over transistor miniaturization.
The Dholera plant itself is expected to eventually support production capacity of around 50,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM), positioning it among meaningful mid-sized global fabs. The facility is also expected to integrate advanced packaging and testing capabilities over time. ASML’s involvement is particularly significant because lithography systems are considered the technological backbone of semiconductor fabrication. Lithography is the process through which microscopic circuit patterns are transferred onto silicon wafers using highly specialized optical systems.
Financially, ASML itself has become one of the world’s most strategically important technology firms. The company has a market capitalization of over $350 billion and reported annual revenues exceeding €27 billion (~ $30 billion) in recent years. Notably, a single advanced EUV lithography machine can reportedly cost between $180 million and $350 million, depending on configuration, while installation and calibration may take several months.
Meanwhile, Tata Electronics has been building a broader semiconductor ecosystem through multiple international collaborations. Along with PSMC and ASML, the company has also engaged with global equipment providers, chip design software firms, and packaging technology partners to establish a vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing platform.
However, despite the momentum, challenges remain substantial. India still lacks a mature semiconductor supplier network, advanced packaging capacity comparable to East Asia, deep process engineering experience, and high-volume fabrication operational expertise. Semiconductor manufacturing also involves extremely high execution risk, where yield issues, equipment blockages, and process instability can quickly impact profitability.
The Tech Portal is published by Blue Box Media Private Limited. Our investors have no influence over our reporting. Read our full Ownership and Funding Disclosure →
Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
