Tatas rope in GlobalFoundries veteran KC Ang to head Dholera chip fab

New Delhi: Tata Semiconductor Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Tata Electronics Private Ltd, has appointed K.C. Ang, a veteran semiconductor industry executive, to head the group’s semiconductor foundry business.

The unlisted Tata group entity ventured into chip manufacturing under the Centre’s India Semiconductor Mission when it announced a $10-billion chip foundry project in Dholera, Gujarat—in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (PSMC). Ang, with nearly three decades of work experience, will head the group’s chip manufacturing business.

Ang served as the president for Asia market at US-headquartered chip manufacturing firm GlobalFoundries, Tata Electronics said in a statement on Wednesday.

GlobalFoundries, as per a report by market researcher Counterpoint, is the world’s fifth-largest semiconductor manufacturing company by volume as of FY24, capturing 5% share of the world’s chip market.

Randhir Thakur, managing director and chief executive of Tata Electronics, said Ang will “drive manufacturing operations and work closely with our customers and ecosystem partners”. The company is making “steady progress towards commencing operations at our Dholera fab,” he added.

A ‘fab’ or foundry refers to factories that manufacture data processing chips out of silicon wafers. Chip fabs are typically among the world’s most sophisticated and complex factories, requiring high capital investments, unlimited and uninterrupted water and electricity supplies, and a skilled workforce capable of running automated chip machinery at the highest possible efficiency.

Including their direct and indirect impact, processor chips and associated products such as memory and storage chips make for nearly 60% of the value of an average electronics gadget in the modern consumer world, as per industry veterans.

So far, India has not had any functioning chip fab supplying to either the domestic or international markets. Government-backed Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, Punjab still only has chip manufacturing capacities at 180nm (nanometre) chip sizes—even as cutting-edge devices have moved on to 3nm chips. Mass electronics used in appliances, cars and other industries use chips ranging from 28-100nm in size.

Also Read: Chip wars: As geopolitics change, India needs this crucial ‘transfer’ to work her way up

It is this area that Tata’s semiconductor project is targeting to begin with. On 1 February, union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Tata’s chip fab is on course to roll out the first-ever made in India chip from its Dholera plant “before the end of 2025.”

Industry veterans have indicated that domestic chipmaking can reduce India’s reliance on imports just by catering to the domestic market. “India has a large government-driven demand for smart meters in electricity distribution companies—simply catering to these would give chipmakers a market of over 100 million devices,” Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCL Technologies Ltd, told Mint last year, underlining how Tata’s chip fab can start gaining clients within India itself.