NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Foxconn said on Monday it had withdrawn from a joint venture with conglomerate Vedanta, in a blow to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chipmaking plans.
Here is a timeline of how events have unfolded since the signing of the $19.5 billion joint venture:
* Feb. 14, 2022: Foxconn partners with Vedanta to make semiconductors in India in a bid to diversify its business. Foxconn said it will be “a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India”.
* Sept. 13, 2022: Vedanta and Foxconn sign pacts to invest $19.5 billion to set up semiconductor and display production. Modi’s home state Gujarat is selected for the facilities.
* Sept. 14, 2022: Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal says the Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate does not see funding problems for the JV.
* May 19, 2023: Deputy IT minister Chandrasekhar tells Reuters the JV “struggling” to tie up with a technology partner.
* May 31, 2023: Reuters reports that Vedanta-Foxconn JV proceeding slowly as talks to involve STMicroelectronics are deadlocked. Vedanta-Foxconn had got on board STMicro for licensing technology, but India’s government had made clear it wants the European chipmaker to have “more skin in the game”, such as a stake in the partnership, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
* June 30, 2023: India market regulator fines Vedanta for breaching disclosure rules by publishing a press release that made it appear it had partnered with Foxconn to make semiconductors in India, as the deal was with Vedanta’s holding company.
* July 10, 2023: Foxconn drops Vedanta chip JV, without specifying a reason. “Foxconn has determined it will not move forward on the joint venture with Vedanta,” it said, saying it had worked for more than a year on the project but the two sides had mutually decided to end the JV.
(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Alexander Smith)
