A fatal gas exposure at an Apple supplier's factory in southern India has renewed scrutiny of worker safety as the company expands production in a country that has already seen fires, hazardous factory conditions, and labor disputes at iPhone-linked facilities.
Paras Semiconductors, a subsidiary of Indian defense company Paras Defence & Space Technologies, announced a strategic technology partnership with US-based BroadPak Corporation on November 6 to build advanced semiconductor packaging capabilities in India, anchored by a planned INR62 billion (US$658.77 million) OSAT facility in Madhya Pradesh.
India is now an important market for Apple in two ways. It is a growth market where the company set an all-time revenue record in the September quarter, even as overall smartphone shipments fell to a decade low. It is also a production base that, according to industry estimates, assembles roughly one in four iPhones.
Corning's move to begin making optical connectivity products in Pune and add a larger adjacent plant by 2027 shows the AI-driven surge in data center fiber demand, so far strongest in the US, starting to reshape the company's manufacturing footprint in India.
Dixon Technologies is pursuing separate partnerships for servers, optical communications, and advanced semiconductor packaging as it seeks a role in AI infrastructure manufacturing, although its most ambitious silicon-photonics plans remain at the evaluation stage.
Dixon Technologies is counting on smartphone joint ventures, expanding IT hardware production, and locally made components to turn a sharp sales increase into stronger earnings, as rising memory costs inflate revenue without a corresponding rise in manufacturing volumes.
Tata Sons has put INR11 billion (US$115.71 million) into Tata Electronics through a rights issue, according to regulatory filings, adding capital to a business that has quickly become one of the largest in the Tata group.
Indian consumer electronics brand Mivi has inaugurated an INR2 billion (approx. US$21.05 million) research, development, and manufacturing facility at E-City in Tukkuguda, Hyderabad, giving the audio-focused company a monthly capacity of 500,000 earbuds and 75,000 soundbars as it pushes into smartphones.
India's semiconductor ambitions are gathering momentum as states launch new subsidies, chipmakers weigh fabs, global suppliers consider manufacturing, and engineering partnerships deepen the country's role in chip supply chains.
Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast aims to make India one of its two largest markets alongside Vietnam, Tapan Ghosh, CEO of VinFast Asia, told Nikkei Asia in an interview published on October 28. The Nasdaq-listed company expects Asia, including Vietnam, to account for 90% of its global sales by 2030.
KLA Corporation, the US maker of semiconductor inspection and metrology equipment, is evaluating a manufacturing foray in India and is considering one or two applications under the country's Semicon 2.0 incentive scheme, The Economic Times reported on October 29, citing people familiar with the developments. KLA did not respond to the newspaper's queries.
Hyderabad-based Spintronics AI Semiconductors said on October 27 that it is evaluating the feasibility of establishing a gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor fabrication facility at Vikram Udyogapuri in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, with a total proposed investment of about INR28 billion (US$294.14 million), according to ETElectronicsWorld. The company works in GaN, RF, and power semiconductor design.
HCLTech and Japan's Rapidus have inaugurated development centers in Bengaluru and Hubli, India, expanding their semiconductor engineering collaboration across Asia. The facilities will support advanced chip work, while a planned talent pipeline could connect Indian engineers with Rapidus' manufacturing ambitions in Japan, highlighting the cross-border partnerships shaping semiconductor supply chains.
India's smartphone shipments fell 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, reaching a decade low as higher memory costs pushed device prices up. The downturn highlights affordability pressures for consumers and could prompt manufacturers to raise prices, reshape portfolios, and rely on premium segments globally.
India's semiconductor drive has largely been led by New Delhi, which selects projects for large central incentives while state governments add their own packages of land, infrastructure and financial support. Tamil Nadu is now giving semiconductor investors another route.
Tata Communications announced on October 26 that it plans to invest US$400-450 million in approximately 10,000 kilometers of long-haul fiber across India, linking data centers and AI hubs as it expands its connectivity business. The network will connect domestic corridors with its global backbone.
