Tamil Nadu’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) major Zoho Corporation has postponed its plans to build a $700 million compound semiconductor fabrication plant. Company founder Sridhar Vembu has given this information.
Vembu said on social media site X, ‘Since this business is very capital intensive, it needs government support. With respect to our semiconductor fab investment plans, we want to be absolutely sure about the technology path before taking taxpayer money. We did not have that much confidence in the technology, so our board of directors decided to postpone this plan for now until we find a better technology approach.
In June last year, the company had applied for government incentives under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to set up a compound semiconductor chip fabrication unit. SaaS company also formed a new company Selectric Semiconductor Manufacturing for this purpose. Before applying for incentives to set up a chip fabrication unit under ISM, Vembu had also announced Zoho’s plans to set up a semiconductor design project in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu.
The Rs 76,000 crore ISM incentive scheme, launched with the aim of accelerating semiconductor chip manufacturing and packaging in the country, has been successful and five applications have been approved so far. Of these projects with ISM approval, four are chip packaging units while Tata Electronics is the only chip manufacturing unit. Tata Group’s Dholera Semiconductor unit is the first and only chip manufacturing unit in the country, which was approved by the Central Government on February 29, 2024, under the ambitious ISM.
First Published – May 1, 2025 | 9:51 PM IST
