The unicorn SaaS company Zoho, led by Sridhar Vembu, has made headlines by reports stating that the company has filed to the Center to get permission to establish a chip fabrication unit and receive incentives under the production linked incentive (PLI) system.
Zoho is apparently trying to join the semiconductor industry. To establish the unit, the bootstrapped business anticipates spending about $700 million, according to sources cited by Reuters.
According to a source cited, “Zoho is proposing to manufacture compound semiconductors, which have specialized commercial applications and are made from alternatives to the more commonly used silicon in chipmaking.”
The IT ministry is now reviewing the company’s request. Additionally, the government has asked Zoho to provide additional information about the clients it plans to work with.
According to viable reports, Zoho had already chosen a tech partner to establish the chip production factory, citing one of the sources.
The most recent event happened about two months after Sridhar Vembu said in an X post that Zoho was preparing a semiconductor design project in the Tamil Nadu district of Tenkasi.
According to the two sources stated in Business Standards, Zoho is planning to produce compound semiconductors, which are created from substitutes for silicon, which is more widely used in chipmaking and have specific commercial uses.
Without sharing much details, Zoho’s founder and CEO, Sridhar Vembu, said in March that the company was contemplating a chip design project in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. It has not previously disclosed its intentions to diversify into the chip manufacturing industry.
India approved the building of three semiconductor factories worth over $15 billion in February. The plants will be built by companies like Tata Group and CG Power, and its goal is to produce and package chips for use in the defense, automotive, and telecommunications industries.
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