L&T Semicon expects its chip production to start in 2 yrs; to set up unit later

L&T Semiconductor Technologies plans to start manufacturing semiconductor products in two years, aiming to reduce India's dependency on foreign firms.

Fabless chip company L&T Semiconductor Technologies expects manufacturing of semiconductor products designed by it to start in the next two years, a top company official said.

While speaking to PTI, L&T Semiconductor Technologies CEO Sandeep Kumar said the company will set up its chip manufacturing plants after achieving a threshold revenue in the range of $50 million to $1 billion for different semiconductor technologies.

The company is building teams to handle around 15 different products in parallel, and it is already halfway on that journey, he added.

"We will have the full force ready in the next six months. By the end of this year, we will be able to handle 15 parallel product designs. Since we have half the team, roughly six product designs have already started. Those designs will launch sometime by the end of next year, and production will start in two years from today," Mr. Kumar said.

He said the company is of the view that starting as a fabless chip firm is crucial for India to reduce dependency on foreign firms.

"First, we need to build products. We need to figure out how to sell those products that are of true strategic value. Tomorrow, you build a factory, and it is building somebody else's products from the outside. You can always shift to another fab, and that foundry can go belly up. There's always that risk," Mr. Kumar said.

He also talked about a hypothetical situation where if a developed country decides to stop sharing technology with India then in that case, the entire technology sector in the domestic market may come to a halt.