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India versus Taiwan in chips
Taiwan remains the clear leader in advanced chip manufacturing, while India is at an early, foundation-building stage. This page compares the two on a factual basis, explaining where Taiwan's strength comes from, what India is actually building at sites like Dholera, and why the two are not yet competing in the same league.
Last checked 2026-08-11 · every figure below carries its source
Where Taiwan stands today
Taiwan is the world's dominant location for leading-edge chip manufacturing, largely through TSMC, the contract foundry that produces the most advanced processors used in smartphones, data centres, and artificial-intelligence hardware. This leadership was built over roughly four decades through steady investment, deep engineering talent, dense supplier networks, and long relationships with global chip designers. Leading-edge here means the smallest, most complex process nodes, the ones measured in a handful of nanometres, where a very small number of companies worldwide can compete at all. Taiwan also hosts a wider ecosystem of packaging, testing, materials, and equipment suppliers that took many years to mature. For context, the global foundry business is concentrated in a few economies, with Taiwan holding the largest single share of leading-edge capacity. That concentration is exactly why other countries, including the United States, Japan, and members of the European Union, have launched their own incentive programmes to attract fabrication onto their own soil. When people describe a country as catching up to Taiwan, it is worth being precise about which segment they mean. Matching Taiwan on mature nodes is a very different task from matching it on the cutting edge, and the second remains out of reach for almost every new entrant, India included.
What India is actually building
India's semiconductor push is real but early. The country's first commercial wafer fabrication plant under construction is the Tata Electronics and PSMC project at Dholera in Gujarat, approved by the Union Cabinet on 29 February 2024 under the India Semiconductor Mission. PSMC, or Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, is a Taiwanese firm serving as the technology partner. The reported investment is about Rs 91,000 crore, roughly US$11 billion, with the Press Information Bureau citing Rs 91,526 crore. The plan describes a 300mm fab with capacity of up to 50,000 wafers per month, targeting mature and specialty nodes such as 28, 40, 55, 90, and 110 nanometres. These are useful, widely demanded nodes for automotive, power, display, and consumer electronics, but they are explicitly not leading-edge. The node roadmap is reported to start at 55 and 90 nanometres and then move toward 28 nanometres. First silicon is a target around December 2026, and commercial production is reported for the middle of 2028. As of now, no chip has been produced at the site. Reading these facts together, India is entering the industry at the mature-node tier, which is a sensible and common starting point rather than a direct challenge to Taiwan's frontier position.
Why the comparison needs care
Comparing India and Taiwan as if they were rivals for the same market can be misleading. Mature nodes and leading-edge nodes serve different customers, use different equipment generations, and carry very different capital and yield risks. A country can build a healthy business supplying mature-node chips for cars, appliances, and industrial systems without ever attempting the most advanced processors. Taiwan does both, but its global standing rests on the frontier. India, through Dholera, is starting with mature and specialty nodes, where demand is large and steadier and where a new entrant can realistically build yield and skills. Another difference is ecosystem depth. Taiwan's advantage is not only its fabs but the surrounding suppliers, packaging houses, and trained workforce accumulated over decades. India is assembling parts of this ecosystem now, including an assembly and test presence and equipment partnerships such as the ASML lithography partnership confirmed for the Dholera project. The honest framing is that India is building a first credible foothold, not overtaking anyone. Progress should be measured against India's own prior baseline, which was effectively no commercial fab, rather than against Taiwan's mature and world-leading position.
What would change the picture
For India to move closer to Taiwan in any meaningful way, several things would need to happen over many years rather than months. First, the Dholera fab would need to reach commercial production, hit reliable yields, and win repeat customers, proving that the model works in practice. Second, India would need to deepen its supplier base, in chemicals, gases, materials, equipment servicing, and skilled operators, so that fabs are not dependent on imports for every input. Third, the country would likely need additional fabs and packaging plants to build scale, since a single facility cannot anchor an industry. Government support matters here. The India Semiconductor Mission, launched in 2021 with an outlay of about Rs 76,000 crore, offers fiscal support of up to 50 percent of eligible project cost for approved fabs, which lowers the entry barrier. Even with that support, closing the distance on leading-edge nodes is a separate and far harder challenge that would require access to the newest lithography, enormous capital, and years of yield learning. A realistic near-term goal for India is to become a dependable mature-node supplier and packaging hub, not to displace Taiwan at the frontier.