SemIndia signs AMD in a $3 B wafer fab project
By Sources   |   Thursday, 01 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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BANGLAORE: SemIndia Inc., a consortium of Indian technologists, has agreed to lead the investment of $3 billion in a wafer fab in India to make chips using technology licensed from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. An agreement signed between the two companies Wednesday covers manufacturing and technology licensing and business development based on x86 processor intellectual property from AMD. A memorandum of understanding was signed in New Delhi by Hector Ruiz, chairman, president and chief executive officer, of AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Vinod K. Agarwal, chairman, SemIndia in the presence of Dayanidhi Maran, federal minister for communications and information technology. AMD may pick up equity in the project in payment for its licensed technologies, although the investment details, equity holdings, the location of the wafer fab and its timetable are yet to be worked out. Gaining the support of AMD marks significant progress for the SemIndia partnership, in which the Indian government is likely to take some equity, and which is expected to result in the setting up of a $3 billion fabrication facility with the location dependent on which regional government provides the best infrastructure support and concessions. The agreement allows SemIndia to license AMD manufacturing process technology for SemIndia's planned wafer fabrication and assembly-test-mark-and-pack (ATMP) operations. Under the terms of the agreement AMD and SemIndia would also develop and market semiconductor solutions for India together. “Our vision is to make India a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing, and this agreement should bring world-class wafer fabrication to India for the first time,” said Agarwal of SemIndia. “This is undoubtedly the next big wave in India's progress, and AMD is committed to bringing our process technology expertise to the SemIndia initiative. AMD will work closely with the Indian government to enable an exponential increase in PC and Internet penetration,” said Ajay Marathe, president of AMD India.

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