India’s Zoho shelves plan to make compound semiconductors
Software company Zoho Corp. (Chennai, India) is dropping a US$700 million plan to build a compound semiconductor wafer fab in the state of Karnataka.
Zoho, which provides business software and software-as-a-service, submitted a proposal to India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the country’s US$10 billion semiconductor subsidy scheme (see India’s Zoho pitches to make compound semiconductors).
A bid to make silicon-carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors would make some sense as emand for such power semiconductors is increasing in India as the amount of electronic consumer goods and automotive assembly ramps up.
Sridhar Vembu, the company’s co-founder who recently resigned as CEO to take up the role of chief scientific officer, was quoted saying on X: “Since this business is so capital intensive it requires government backing, we wanted to be absolutely sure of the technology path before we take taxpayer money. We did not have that confidence in the tech, so our board decided to shelve this idea for the time being, until we find a better tech approach.”
Reportedly the company had created a subsidiary, Silectric Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and announced plans to build a fab in Mysuru, Karnataka.
In May 2024 when the wafer fab proposal was first pitched it was reported that Zoho had identified a technology partner to help set up the operation, but that partner was never revealed.
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