No aim to replace anybody, India making chips for future: Renesas India

As India develops a comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem, Renesas India’s senior management emphasises that the focus on ATMP and OSAT facilities is not intended to replace China or any specific country. Rather, it is aimed at producing future-ready chips and securing India’s place in the global semiconductor supply chain.

“There’s no aim to replace anybody, it's to do with the market, India making chips for the future is paramount,” said Srikhanth Nagaraj, Senior Director of System Solutions Engineering, India, Renesas Electronics, in response to a question about whether India’s emphasis on ATMP and OSAT facilities signifies an intention to replace China globally.

While Renesas has a global presence, a significant portion of its workforce—over 10%—is based in China.

“Holistically, India is trying to become self-reliant in semiconductors. For self-reliance, you need different pieces, from self-reliance on the design side, to that in testing, and manufacturing. You need every piece of the puzzle and India is simply trying to get the entire ecosystem together,” said Malini, Country Head, Renesas Electronics, in an exclusive interaction with Fortune India during the Semicon India summit.

Renesas Electronics is the minority stakeholder in the CG Power Semi OSAT facility set to be established in Sanand, Gujarat. The Japanese semiconductor company is globally the largest supplier of MCUs and will provide the technological know-how needed to establish the assembly and packaging facility in Gujarat.

The company’s CEO Hidetoshi Shibata shared the timeline for the CG Semi OSAT JV during his keynote presentation at the summit.

A pilot facility is expected to be ready by March next year with production starting from February 2026. The construction for the main facility, however, will begin in December this year and will be complete by June 2027 with production expected to start from October 2027.

Responding to why timelines for the semiconductor facility got delayed, Malini said, “While this is a more CG Power question, we were way ready to start with the pilot.”

When asked why India isn’t solely focusing on leveraging its surplus of design engineers, Srikanth responded, “We should build products precisely because we have a vast pool of design engineers.”

“We already have the design (side). What we don’t have is end-to-end product development in India. These things take time,” said Malini. Srikanth added that given companies around the globe had several of their semiconductor chip designs from their Indian design centres, it is pertinent that now the design is put to work in assembly, testing, and manufacturing.

Renesas is the world's third-largest automotive semiconductor company. The company specialises in the automotive sector, which accounts for over 47% of its revenue, with nearly 20% each coming from the IoT, Industrial, and Infrastructure segments. More than 43% of its revenue is from MCUs, followed by Analog chips, Power devices, and SoCs.

“Roughly, 1 car out of 3 cars that you see on streets in India is powered by our devices,” said Shibata.

Srikanth adds that as traditional telephone infrastructure becomes obsolete, the focus will shift towards wireless connectivity, AI, and IT, driving increased demand in the semiconductor industry. He emphasised the growing need for high-performance processors and specialized AI chips to manage complex computations, alongside power management semiconductors to efficiently handle the energy demands of connected devices. Additionally, Krishnan notes that analogue and mixed-signal semiconductors are critical for interfacing digital systems with real-world signals, particularly in IoT applications. These semiconductor types are experiencing significant growth, crucial to supporting the interconnected nature of modern technology.

“We want to work with everyone, and we are engaging with all four-wheeler and two-wheeler manufacturers to understand their unique requirements,” says Srikanth.