Tata Group looking to enter semi-conductor manufacturing business

NEW DELHI: With the whole world, especially automobile industry, facing acute shortage of semi-conductors, Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran on Monday said that they are looking to make a foray into semi-conductor manufacturing. He pegs the market opportunity at over $1 trillion for manufacturing high tech electronics and said that the company has already set up a business to seize the opportunity. 

Chandrasekaran’s remarks come days after the IT-to-airplane conglomerate had announced its entry into 5G equipment manufacturing and a string of acquisitions to create the Tata Digital business.Semi-conductors are silicon chips that cater to control and memory functions in products ranging from automobiles, computers to cellphones. Following surge in demand for electronic items during the lockdown, companies are struggling to secure their quota for this miniscule but important component. Tata Group too has been impacted as Tata Motors-controlled Jaguar Land Rover estimates production loss of nearly 100,000 units during April-September due to the chip shortage.

Chandrasekaran explained that alterations to the global supply chains in the aftermath of the pandemic and geopolitical changes, will make businesses shift their reliance on other countries and called this a huge opportunity for India. “At the Tata Group, we have already pivoted into a number of new businesses like electronics manufacturing, 5G network equipment as well as semiconductors, in all probability...On rebalancing supply chains, India can significantly benefit from the geopolitical shifts that we are seeing,” he said at IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s AGM.“We have already set up a business to seize the promise of high-tech manufacturing of electronics, precision manufacturing, assembly and testing and semiconductors in the medium term,” he added.