The top executives clarified that the equity structure of the venture would not change and that they had inked an agreement with a technology partner for the semiconductor fab unit. The joint venture is awaiting government approval for the $20 billion project and aiming to order equipment for the plant by the end of FY24. 

What sort of timeline are you looking at for semiconductor manufacturing and revenue?

Akarsh Hebbar: We have identified land in Gujarat. We are talking to the government about the landfill. We have signed MoUs (memorandums of understanding) with companies in Japan and Korea. There is $80 billion that the ecosystem can earn because semiconductor and display units are coming here. We are talking about a very big change in the economy and ecosystem once we see government approval comes through. Government approval anytime this year will enable us to make sure the funding happens according to what the project requires. Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that approvals would start coming in the next few weeks. If that happens, we are hopeful by the second or third quarter. We will start ordering our equipment. This equipment will take about a year and a half or two years to come in.

David Reed: The ultimate target is to have revenue by FY2027. We are right now working on the site in Dholera to move the dirt. We aim to have the first shovel event this fourth quarter. We are targeting initial construction with 1,500 people that will climb to 3,000 plus by the third quarter of next year.

Foxconn has access to production-worthy high-volume manufacturing for 40nm nodes. It is signed, sealed, and accessible to us. We have started negotiations with the suppliers and with Foxconn. There are going to be 900-1000 suppliers and 150 core suppliers.

The 40nm is the basis, and on top of that drops, the 28nm. The interchangeability between those two is about 80-85%. This technology is mainstream and automotive grade, which is very critical. We will start off with the basic logic and microprocessors and controllers. Having such a powerful partner like Foxconn helps. They have a picture of where this 28nm and 40nm node will go not only within India but also outside India.