German chipmaker Infineon Technologies plans to expand its India operations by investing in semiconductor research, development, and supply chain infrastructure, according to Vivek Mahajan, senior vice president at the Neubiberg-headquartered firm, one of the world’s 10 largest semiconductor companies.
In an interview, Mahajan said the former Siemens AG arm aims to nearly double its Indian workforce from 2,600 today to about 5,000 by 2030. The €14.66-billion giant’s expansion is driven by India’s green energy growth, supported by existing partnerships with Continental Device India Ltd (CDIL) and Kaynes Semicon, a unit of NSE-listed Kaynes Technologies. CDIL is among the pioneers of semiconductor chips and devices in India, and Kaynes Semicon makes semiconductor packages designed for power electronics, industrial systems, and emerging compute platforms.
and power electronics are expected to play a key role in India’s energy transition journey, with transmission capacity growth key to achieving its ambitious 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel capacity by 2030.
India partnerships
In March, Infineon announced a technology partnership with Zenergize, an Indian power-electronics company designing and manufacturing solutions for the solar, EV charging, and . Under the partnership, Infineon will provide its wide-bandgap (WBG) power semiconductors, along with application engineering support for system-level integration.
Mahajan said that the company would also work with Indian chip makers in designing chips, and support emerging startups. “We will definitely work with either the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who design by themselves, or third-party design houses who design for other manufacturers. We have also started to look at incubators where new startups are coming up,” he said.
The company’s major manufacturing centres are currently in Dresden, Germany; Villach, Austria; and Kulim, Malaysia. Its packaging facilities are in locations including Malaysia, Germany and Hungary.
No standalone manufacturing for now
While the company plans to deepen Indian partnerships for assembly and testing, and designing semiconductors for power management and green energy, it has no immediate plans for standalone manufacturing. Mahajan noted the firm may consider building its own factories in the future as the local market matures.
“First we will look at the existing ecosystem which is coming up very fast. It could be OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) or other arrangements. As the market evolves we can take a call whether a standalone facility makes sense,” he said.
Mahajan said that Infineon initially made a rare exception by supplying raw, unpackaged semiconductor chips to two Indian firms, allowing them to package and sell the products under their own brands. He added that the company is now seriously exploring further collaborations and is actively engaged in discussions for similar partnerships.
He said that the company’s India operations largely focus on and power systems, including transmission capacities. “Our participation is mainly in solar and wind. Once these natural forces are converted into electricity, they need to be connected to the grid. And that’s where a bigger part of us—as power electronics or power semiconductor experts—comes in: connecting this to the grid, which is done using inverters,” he said.