India’s semiconductor journey is entering its most demanding phase. The ambition is no longer just about entering the industry – it is about competing at scale, at speed, and at global standards, says Avinash Avula, president, Applied Materials India. The Santa Clara, California-based firm supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductors and its Bengaluru facility has emerged as a major R&D and engineering hub for its global operations. In this interview with Sudhir Chowdhary, he shares insights on how India can position itself as a global semiconductor hub. Excerpts:
India is pushing aggressively to build a semiconductor ecosystem. What role do equipment and materials companies like Applied Materials play in this value chain?
India’s semiconductor push is real, and equipment and materials companies sit at the very foundation of that effort. Chip manufacturing depends on highly specialised tools and materials without them; it simply cannot happen. Companies like Applied Materials provide the technologies that enable every stage of chip production, from deposition and etch to inspection, metrology, and advanced packaging. For India, this role is especially critical. Equipment companies don’t just enable manufacturing capacity; they bring the process knowledge, materials science, and co-innovation. That’s what turns fabs and packaging plants into globally competitive production.
The government’s sustained focus on semiconductors, across policy, incentives, and ecosystem building recognises this reality. By anchoring global equipment and materials leaders alongside fabs, OSATs, and R&D, India is laying the groundwork for a durable, end-to-end semiconductor ecosystem rather than isolated capacity. Today’s chip making process can involve more than 2,000 highly interconnected steps, which is why customers partner with Applied early to solve challenges related to performance, power efficiency, cost, and time to market. As a result, virtually every new chip in the world passes through Applied’s wafer processing equipment.
From your viewpoint, where does India currently stand in the global semiconductor supply chain – design, manufacturing, packaging, or equipment?
India has world class semiconductor design capabilities and is a major hub for application-led innovation. Where the opportunity is, and where work is now underway, is in the missing middle: equipment, chip manufacturing and device making. That middle layer is what turns design excellence into shipped, reliable silicon. This is where Make + Invent in India comes together, embedding R&D, materials science, process know-how, and manufacturing capability so innovation happens closer to production. The progress we’re seeing in packaging, OSATs, and equipment engagement is encouraging, and it’s being reinforced by sustained government focus, policy support, and ecosystem investment. The next phase for India is not choosing between design or manufacturing, but connecting them, building the middle that allows India to design, make, and continuously invent at scale for global markets.
What are the biggest gaps India must address to become a serious semiconductor manufacturing hub?
The question for India is no longer whether it can build semiconductors, but how quickly it can industrialise manufacturing at scale and remain globally competitive. That requires consistently delivering manufacturing efficiency, reliability, and fast qualification, driven by deep process know-how, equipment integration, materials control, and continuous learning cycles, not just fab capacity. Closing this next phase depends on strengthening the missing middle: equipment and materials partners, advanced packaging and test, process R&D, and shared qualification infrastructure.Around that, startups need access to real manufacturing environments, and investors need clearer paths to de-risk long cycles. Importantly, no company, and no country, can do this alone. Semiconductor manufacturing succeeds only when the ecosystem works as one: industry, startups, academia, investors, and policymakers aligned around common timelines and outcomes. ‘Make + Invent in India’ works when innovation is tightly coupled with manufacturing, and building that connective tissue across the ecosystem is what will make India a serious global semiconductor hub.
Applied Materials has expanded engineering and R&D operations in India. How much of your global innovation work is now happening here?
Applied Materials has been in India for over two decades, and what has fundamentally changed is the nature of the work we do here. India has transitioned from being primarily a global capability centre to becoming a core engineering and R&D hub for the company. Today, the work done by our teams in India spans advanced materials engineering, process innovation, software, and product development, and it is all for the global corporation, supporting customers and fabs around the world. As we expand our engineering and R&D footprint, India is increasingly where ideas are developed, validated, and industrialised, not just executed. That reflects both the depth of talent here and our long-term commitment to building innovation capability in India.
Semiconductor manufacturing is extremely talent-intensive. Does India have the right skill pipeline for fab-scale operations?
I am not particularly worried about the talent pipeline in India. The depth of engineering talent is strong, and the focus now is on industry alignment. At Applied, we work closely with premier institutes on curriculum design, joint research, and lab setups that give students real-world exposure to semiconductor manufacturing. We also actively promote open innovation by enabling shared access to EDA tools and prototyping infrastructure for startups, while investing through our venture capital arm, Applied Ventures, to foster deep-tech entrepreneurship. It’s this hands-on, industry-linked model, combined with ongoing upskilling, that prepares talent to be future-proof.