US Space Force to help set up semiconductor plant in India to meet national security needs

New Delhi: The United States military will enter into a strategic technology partnership with Bharat Semi and 3rdiTech to set up a semiconductor fabrication plant in India for manufacturing chips for advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security purposes.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden met in Delaware on Saturday, the two sides announced what they called a watershed arrangement to set up the new semiconductor fabrication plant, which would manufacture infrared, gallium nitride, and silicon carbide chips, with support from the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force. The plant is going to be the first of its kind in India, as it will focus on manufacturing semiconductors to meet national security requirements.

The chip plant will focus on meeting the requirement of three essential pillars for modern warfare – advanced sensing, advanced communications, and high-voltage power electronics, a source in New Delhi said. The chips will also be used in railways, telecom infrastructure and data centres and green energy. It will help build a stable trusted supply chain in the most critical of national security technology, added the source in New Delhi.

Modi and Biden had earlier discussed the proposal when they had met in Washington DC in June 2023 and in New Delhi in September 2024. It was also discussed during the meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan.

The strategic technology partnership between the US Space Force and two companies of India will put the country in a handful of elite nations with the capability and knowhow to manufacture these types of semiconductors on shore, added the source.