ASML Begins India Operations, to Hire 20–30 Engineers to Support Tata Dholera Fab
Dutch chip equipment maker ASML has begun operations in India and plans to hire 20–30 young engineering graduates at first. Its India growth will be linked to Tata Electronics' Dholera fab, where operations are expected in 2028.
Netherlands-based ASML, the world's leading maker of lithography systems used in chip manufacturing, has begun operations in India. The company plans to start with a team of 20 to 30 young engineering graduates. The announcement was made on the sidelines of SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi in September 2026. ASML's India plans are closely linked to Tata Electronics' semiconductor fab in the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) of Gujarat.
Lin Kiat Yap, Executive Vice President and Head of Customer Support at ASML, said the company's India operations are starting now. "We are probably going to start off at 20-30 people. We will see how fast it scales," he said. According to the company, ASML's growth in India will directly follow how fast Tata Electronics and India's wider chipmaking ecosystem scale up.
As part of its India setup, ASML is establishing a legal entity in the country and a customer support office. In November 2025, reports said ASML planned to set up its customer support office in GIFT City, Gujarat, as a first step. The same reports said a larger presence in Dholera could follow as the fab project progresses. At the time, the company said its priority was to serve customers in the region. The final location and size of the India office have not been officially detailed in the latest announcement.
ASML's main customer in India is Tata Electronics. The two companies signed a strategic partnership in May 2026, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Netherlands. Under the agreement, ASML will provide lithography tools and manufacturing solutions for Tata Electronics' 300-millimetre fab in Dholera. The partnership also covers workforce development, lithography-focused training programmes, supply-chain resilience and semiconductor research infrastructure.
Allan Wayne, ASML's Chief Strategic Sourcing and Procurement Officer, described Tata Electronics as the first customer in India to have a 300-millimetre semiconductor fab with a production capacity of 50,000 wafers per month. The Dholera plant, being built with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), is expected to begin operations in 2028. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said commercial production at the plant is expected by mid-2028. Reports put the investment in the facility at around $11 billion. The fab is planned to make chips for automotive, mobile devices, artificial intelligence and communications.
Wayne also spoke about India's semiconductor targets. He said India aims to meet between 15 and 25 per cent of its local semiconductor demand through domestic wafer fabs by 2032. By 2035, the target goes up to 35 to 50 per cent, which would need about a dozen chip manufacturing plants. He also referred to the government's Semicon 2.0 scheme, which has an incentive outlay of about Rs 1.27 lakh crore (around $13.5 billion).
According to reports, around 450 vendors are expected to support the Tata Electronics fab, and vendor parks are being developed in the region. ASML's presence in India is expected to focus on supporting timely execution, yield rates and operational quality at the Dholera fab.
ASML has said it has no immediate plans for manufacturing or research and development in India. Local equipment manufacturing could be considered only if demand grows enough, but no concrete plans have been announced. For now, the company's India team will focus on customer support for local chipmakers. The size of the team will depend on how the Dholera fab and other semiconductor projects in India progress.
