Strong opportunities, but India will take time to be a chip hub: MediaTek executive

Time of India

22-05-2025

New Delhi: Scarcity of skilled workers could delay India's rise as a global semiconductor manufacturing hub, said a top executive at Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek.Highlighting the complexity and time involved in setting up semiconductor facilities, MediaTek said it typically takes four years from groundbreaking to mass production—even in the US which has an established workforce.'For India, where the workforce in the semiconductor manufacturing industry is still relatively new, it might take longer,' David Ku, co-COO, and CFO, MediaTek told reporters on Wednesday.Mediatek's comments come in the midst of India's push to emerge as a chip manufacturing powerhouse, with six chip fabrication facilities approved so far. The latest is a joint venture between HCL and Taiwan's Foxconn, in Uttar Pradesh.
'India's semiconductor strategy has historically emphasized chip design, where we've successfully captured a significant portion of the global talent pool. However, our focus on the hardware and manufacturing side has been limited,' said Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.
'Now, as we actively push for fabs and semiconductor manufacturing within India, we're working to bridge this gap. This will take time because there's a substantial skill mismatch between academia and industry,' Pathak said.
He added that even if India begins training at the university level today, it could take 5-10 years to cultivate the necessary real-world hardware expertise.
'Alternatively, we can accelerate this process by attracting talent from other countries to facilitate knowledge transfer. We're already seeing this happen, and companies like MediaTek can play a crucial role in this endeavor,' Pathak said.
MediaTek sees India as a front end for software development—which comprise a major part of its operations in the country. 'On the software side, we have been very aggressive in training the Indian workforce, driven by the availability of skilled talent,' Ku said.
Mediatek also sees strong opportunities following the Indian government delicensing the lower portion of the 6GHz band for WiFi services.
Thomas Ho, marketing director, MediaTek, said the development will catapult the launch and deployment of WiFi 7, which offers far faster speeds than previous generations, in India.
'The adoption of WiFi 7 in India depends heavily on the device ecosystem and the pervasiveness of high-speed connectivity, like gigabit connections, which are not very widespread…For many subscribers in India, the current speeds are around 30 Mbps, for which WiFi 6 is sufficient,' Ho said.
Telecom operators see WiFi 7 as a way to boost average revenue per user (ARPU), add more services, and position themselves as technology leaders.
In satellite connectivity, which is starting to take off in India, MediaTek said it is working on customer premises equipment (CPEs) such as hybrid set-top boxes catering to both terrestrial and satellite requirements.
A supplier to Elon Musk-owned Starlink, MediaTek said the converged technology is ready, but the costs of deployment are high. 'Whether operators deploy such devices depends on the operator's strategy…There are already talks in other regions of the world about using satellite or 5G as a backup when wired broadband is unavailable…A one-box solution is possible,' Ho said.
MediaTek sees the future where with 6G connectivity, a consumer will not know whether the communication signal is coming from a terrestrial network or a satellite network, adding that the convergence between the two will be a major opportunity, considering them as the 'two main trunks of connectivity.'