US semiconductor equipment giant Applied Materials has announced plans to invest $5 billion in India over the next decade, one of the biggest commitments yet by a global chip-equipment company to the country’s rapidly expanding semiconductor industry.
The investment, announced at SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, will be made under the company’s “Applied Materials India Vision 2035” programme. Prabu Raja, president of Applied Materials’ Semiconductor Products Group, said the plan is built around three areas: expanding research and development in India, strengthening the local semiconductor supply chain and developing future talent. The company also plans to establish a 140-acre advanced semiconductor research park bringing together cleanroom facilities, engineers, customers and suppliers.
Applied Materials also wants to increase its India-based supply-chain capacity tenfold by 2035 and more than double its R&D workforce in the country. The focus is significant because Applied Materials does not manufacture chips itself. It produces equipment and materials-engineering technologies used inside semiconductor factories, giving it a crucial role much earlier in the production chain. The investment could therefore help India develop domestic capabilities in chipmaking equipment, components and advanced engineering rather than remaining dependent on imported technology.
The new commitment builds on Applied Materials’ existing presence in India. In 2023, the company announced a $400 million collaborative engineering centre in Bengaluru designed to bring its engineers together with suppliers and research institutions. Applied said at the time that the centre could support more than $2 billion in additional investment and create at least 500 advanced engineering jobs, along with thousands more in the wider manufacturing ecosystem. Earlier this year, the company also inaugurated a new campus of more than 800,000 square feet in Bengaluru.
The announcement comes as India moves into the next phase of its semiconductor strategy. The government has approved 12 semiconductor projects and committed more than $21 billion through incentive programmes, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi used SEMICON India to again position the country as a reliable manufacturing alternative in a global chip industry increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence demand and US-China technology tensions. More than 600 companies from 52 countries are attending this year’s event.
India has already attracted major projects from Tata Electronics, Micron Technology and CG Power. Micron’s Gujarat assembly and testing operation has begun commercial production, while Tata is building a large semiconductor fabrication plant in Dholera in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, or PSMC. But India is still trying to close major gaps in equipment, materials, research, suppliers and specialised engineering talent precisely the areas targeted by Applied Materials’ new plan.
The $5 billion commitment therefore represents more than another factory announcement. Applied Materials is betting that India can become part of the global infrastructure that makes chip manufacturing possible in the first place.
The arrival of one of the world’s most important semiconductor-equipment companies at this scale is another sign that India’s chip strategy is moving beyond assembly and towards building a much broader ecosystem.
