Bengaluru: Wafer fabrication equipment supplier Lam Research is currently scouting component suppliers from India to feed their Malaysian manufacturing base.
During a walk-in tour of its research and development lab in Bengaluru, Rangesh Raghavan, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Lam Research India toldDHthat his company has no plans to manufacture in India, anytime soon. “A significant portion of our R&D is driven out of India while we continue to manufacture in Malaysia, “ he said, adding that manufacturing is a low-value activity in the equipment market and also employs very limited specialised people.
The company, in July, received approval from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on the proposed investment of Rs 208 crore and was committed incentives (from the government) to the tune of Rs 32.21 crore under the government’s Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductor (SPECS). This investment has been utilised to build this lab in Bengaluru, Raghavan clarified, and the incentives are coming in tranches.
Of the $100 million wafer fab equipment industry, 80% is captured by the top five players including Tokyo Electron Limited (Japan), Lam Research Corporation (US), ASML (Netherlands), Applied Materials, Inc. (US), KLA Corporation (US). As per market estimates, Lam Research’s market share (by revenue) as of the third quarter of 2023 stood at 22.17%.
(Published 20 December 2023, 23:01 IST)