Tata Sons To Tap Singapore As A ‘Key Partner’ For Semiconductor Plans

Singapore’s minister for home affairs and law, K Shanmugam said that Indian conglomerate Tata Sons is looking at the city-state as a ‘key partner’ for its upcoming semiconductor plans.

Tata Sons is the promoter of the Tata Group.

“’If they (Tatas) want to, they can do business with anybody in the world. It’s not that they need to do it in Singapore, but they will, I think, choose Singapore as a key partner, not only partner, but as a key partner,” Shanmugam said, as per news agency PTI. 

Shanmugam also said that Singapore is a “serious and reliable player“ in the international semiconductor industry, adding that the Tata Group has been present in Singapore for over five decades. 

Shanmugam, who was on a day-long visit to Mumbai, made the comments right after his meeting with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran. Shanmugam said that semiconductors were a ‘big discussion’ point during his meeting with Chandrasekaran. 

It is pertinent to note that Singapore is one of the key players in the global semiconductor value chain and accounts for a 20% share in the global semiconductor equipment production. 

While the South East Asian country is reportedly home to 25 semiconductor foundries, Shanmugam said that the “level of sophistication at which these (foundries) work may not be the best in the world”.

Partnering with Tatas could be one way Singapore plans to address these concerns. The Indian conglomerate has rapidly scaled up its semiconductor ambitions in the last year. The Tata Group is investing INR 91,000 Cr for a semiconductor facility in Gujarat, and another INR 27,000 Cr for another such unit in Assam. 

Besides, it has inked pacts with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) to bring the expertise in the ecosystem to India. 

The development comes at a time when the India government has been rolling out red carpet for global chip giants to ‘Make in India’ and offering sops and production-linked-incentives (PLIs) to make the country a semiconductor hub.

As per Inc42, the homegrown semiconductor ecosystem is projected to become a $150 Bn opportunity by 2030.

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