India has been trying to become much more than just a destination for assembling phones and electronic gadgets, and to become what today’s China is.
A new semiconductor partnership involving Dutch chipmaker Nexperia and Tata Electronics shows how far that ambition is reaching.
Nexperia said Thursday it will work with Tata Electronics on chip manufacturing, assembly and testing in India, bringing its own semiconductor products into Tata’s expanding manufacturing network.
The deal covers production of Nexperia’s MOSFET portfolio at Tata Electronics’ planned 300mm semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat, along with assembly and testing of Nexperia’s discrete semiconductor products at Tata’s facility in Jagiroad, Assam. The companies will also cooperate on technology development and research. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It’s not just another tech news coming from India, it matters because this is not simply another electronics company moving some final assembly to India. Nexperia is putting its products into both the front-end and back-end stages of semiconductor manufacturing.
And that is where India’s manufacturing story gets more interesting.
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| India Is Becoming the New China for Global Manufacturing |
India wants the factories, the jobs and the supply chains
For years, China became the default destination for companies that needed enormous manufacturing capacity, deep supplier networks, trained workers and competitive production costs. Electronics companies could build products there, source components nearby and move finished goods through an industrial network built over decades.
India is now making a serious attempt to offer an alternative.
Tata Electronics says its Dholera fab represents an investment of about $11 billion. Its Jagiroad semiconductor assembly and test facility is planned with an investment of roughly $3 billion. Together, the two projects represent about $14 billion of planned investment in semiconductor manufacturing.
The Nexperia deal gives those facilities another global customer and another layer of semiconductor expertise.
Nexperia said the partnership covers three areas: wafer fabrication, assembly and testing, plus technology and ecosystem development. The company described the arrangement as part of an effort to create a more geographically balanced manufacturing network.
That language tells its own story.
Companies are not only asking where they can manufacture cheaply anymore. They are also asking where production can continue if trade restrictions, political disputes or supply disruptions hit one country.
Nexperia has a particularly obvious reason to think about that question.
Nexperia’s China dispute hangs over the deal
Nexperia is owned by China’s Wingtech, but it is no longer controlled by Wingtech after a dispute that began with intervention by the Dutch government in September 2025.
The dispute was linked to concerns over a potential transfer of Nexperia operations to China. Beijing later temporarily blocked exports of Nexperia chips packaged in China, contributing to shortages that affected carmakers.
Those restrictions have since eased, yet Nexperia remains caught between corporate ownership and national supply-chain interests. A Dutch court stripped Wingtech of control, and the company’s current management board backed the Tata partnership.
For Nexperia, India offers another production base. For Tata, the arrangement brings an established international semiconductor company into facilities that are still being built and scaled.
That combination is useful for both sides.
This is where the “new China” comparison starts to make sense
Calling India the new China today would be too early, but it surely is in the race. China still has an industrial machine that took decades to build, with supplier clusters, logistics networks, skilled manufacturing labor and enormous production capacity that are difficult to reproduce quickly.
Reuters reported this week that some companies that moved production out of China are reconsidering those decisions because alternative markets, including India, can struggle to match China’s factory ecosystem and supplier networks.
Still, the direction is hard to miss.
India is attracting manufacturers that want lower-cost production, a huge pool of workers and a market large enough to support major investment. It is also trying to move into higher-value manufacturing instead of remaining a place where imported components are simply put together.
Semiconductors may be one of the clearest examples.
At SEMICON India in New Delhi on Thursday, Applied Materials announced plans to invest $5 billion in India over the next decade. More than 600 companies and representatives from 52 countries attended the semiconductor event, according to Reuters. India has also committed more than $21 billion across two major semiconductor incentive programs.
India has already attracted semiconductor packaging projects, though one major hurdle remains: it has yet to produce chips from a large-scale fabrication plant. Reuters reported that commercial production from Tata Electronics’ Gujarat fab has been delayed by nearly two years.
So the country is not at the finish line. It is building the road.
Nexperia is another piece of that puzzle
Nexperia’s products are not the kind of headline-grabbing processors normally associated with artificial intelligence. Its semiconductors include components used widely across automobiles, consumer electronics and industrial equipment.
That makes the Tata partnership important for a different reason.
A manufacturing economy is not built only around the most advanced processors. It needs the less glamorous components too: power devices, discrete semiconductors, packaging, testing, materials, equipment suppliers and workers who know how to operate the entire chain.
Tata is building several of those pieces at the same time.
Its Dholera fab is being developed around 28nm to 110nm processes, covering applications such as automobiles, consumer electronics, computing, data storage, wireless communications and AI. Tata is also developing its Jagiroad packaging operation with an investment above $3 billion.
Nexperia now becomes part of that buildout.
For global manufacturers, that could be the real attraction. India does not need to replace every Chinese factory to become important. It only needs to become good enough, large enough and reliable enough for companies to place a growing share of production there.
That is how manufacturing centers gain weight.
One company builds a plant. Another arrives to supply it. Equipment makers follow. Materials suppliers come next. Workers gain experience. Local suppliers emerge. International companies begin treating the country as part of their standard production plans rather than a backup option.
India is still trying to reach that stage.
Yet deals like Nexperia and Tata suggest the country is getting closer to something much bigger than cheap assembly.
It is starting to make the case that the next great manufacturing destination does not have to be China.
For companies searching for lower-cost labor, rising manufacturing capability and a growing industrial ecosystem, India increasingly looks like the place they will investigate first.
That is why the Nexperia-Tata agreement is worth watching beyond semiconductors. It is another sign that India may be turning into the world’s next major factory floor, even if China remains very difficult to replace.
