Foxconn, a major Taiwanese manufacturer of electronics, is said to be preparing to invest up to $200 million to build an electronic component manufacturing facility in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The CEO of Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII), Brand Cheng, and other corporate representatives reportedly met last week with the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, and other government leaders to discuss the investment in the southern state.

According to sources cited by Reuters, FII has presented a plan to state officials that calls for a $180 million to $200 million first investment in the facility.

The Taiwan-based corporation plans to complete the factory by 2024, and additional expenditures are anticipated after that. A final choice has not yet been made, though.

Equipment for communication, mobile networks, and cloud computing is produced by Foxconn Industrial Internet.

Foxconn currently assembles Apple’s iPhones at a sizable campus not far from Chennai.

The south Indian state of Karnataka announced last week that it had discussions with FII, which had agreed to invest $1.07 billion in a new facility.

Deal between Gujarat and Foxconn:

In an effort to enter the Indian semiconductor market, Foxconn is also in talks with the state of Gujarat, which is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Foxconn Chairman Young Liu will be present at the conference PM Modi inaugurates on Friday in Gandhinagar.

On July 28, PM Modi is going to inaugurate Semicon India 2023.

The incident occurs only a few weeks after Foxconn withdrew from a $19.5 billion semiconductors joint venture with Vedanta, a company supported by billionaire Anil Agarwal, claiming “the project was not moving fast enough.” The large Taiwanese electronics manufacturer stated that it was attempting to submit a separate application for the establishment of a semiconductor facility in India.

India’s goal to become a leading producer of semiconductors:

The rising demand for chips implies that the local market would be worth $80 billion by 2028, about four times its current $23 billion size, and India aims to position itself as a semiconductor manufacturing centre to compete with Taiwan.

Modi’s strategy, though, has so far failed. Foxconn and the local firm Vedanta Ltd expressed interest in the $10 billion plan for domestic chip production that his government unveiled in 2021, but none of these offers have come to fruition.