Fuelling India’s ambition of creating a 360-degree ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing, including the establishment of Semiconductor Wafer Fab Equipment (WEF) manufacturing, Lam Research is expanding its global semiconductor fabrication equipment supply chain to India. The US-headquartered Lam Research designs and builds products for semiconductor manufacturing.

Earlier, Business Today reported on the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s pursuit of developing a downstream ecosystem—industries that utilize the output to manufacture finished products, including equipment manufacturing.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics & IT, had previously informed Business Today that having manufacturers of wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) is an integral part of the India Semiconductor Mission, and his ministry is open to introducing a scheme like SPECS or the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors.

Now, Lam Research is assessing capabilities across various supply chain segments and exploring India-based suppliers who can collaborate to fulfill the need for precision components, custom parts, high purity gas delivery systems, and other assemblies required for cutting-edge semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment. The company’s “close to customer” strategy drives collaboration with thousands of suppliers worldwide, enhancing resilience against region-specific supply chain issues and preventing bottlenecks.

“We are proud to be expanding our supply chain in India,” said Rangesh Raghavan, corporate vice president, and general manager at Lam Research India. “By enhancing Lam’s strong global supply infrastructure with capabilities from local suppliers, integrators, and other strategic providers, we aim to enhance the flexibility of our supply chain while further supporting the semiconductor ecosystem in India, where Lam has been a proud leader for more than two decades.”

Previously, Danish Faruqui, CEO of Fab Economics, had informed Business Today that India’s proactive inclusion of Semiconductor WFE Manufacturing as part of India’s semiconductor decadal roadmap is not only existential for the domestic semiconductor ecosystem but also a masterstroke by India based on global geopolitics and geoeconomics of semiconductors.

He stated, “Many across the world have cited India’s foray into semiconductors as a copy approach to China and described it as ‘China – 30 years back,’ but with the recent announcement, India has taken a completely different approach from China and applied learnings from China’s cardinal mistake in setting up a domestic semiconductor ecosystem.”