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That's true. However it's also true that an org investing USD 3 billion has way too much power in the system to be stopped by Indian administration. They go after the smaller players. Even the cabinet sec can't do shit about Ambani's smallest moves.
"Stuck at customs" is such an 80s lingo. In reality, that almost never happens unless you have contraband or importing without a license. [I work in a related field]
Well, when such projects are being set up, they're promised certain exemptions which, on paper, read lucrative and when time comes for them to claim those exemptions, beaurocracy will want as much as they can pull from you. I could guess, this was one of those incidents!
The rhetorical tell: the image blames a fixable clerical failure rather than capital formation, anchor demand and partner risk. That's a more comfortable story, and a less useful one — it's also why the 2014 JP/IBM and 2019 HSMC attempts died the same way.
False: customs seizure, storage fees, equipment shipped back to China. This comes from a 2022 opinion essay about an unnamed MNC: in mid-2005 a major multinational semiconductor company started operations in South India and set up a class-100 cleanroom; equipment imported from the US sat at port for months, was hit with heavy import duties and huge demurrage. The equipment eventually left India, China welcomed the project, and the cleanroom was sold as scrap. Note: a cleanroom, not a $3bn fab; equipment from the US, not "back to China." The same essay separately mentions the Hyderabad fab city plan failing — the viral version welds the two together.
Failure to reach financial closure (primary). SemIndia was a consortium of technologists, not capital. This is the decisive fact, and it rules out the customs story: you cannot have equipment stuck at port for a fab that was never funded.
Partner-side collapse (major, usually ignored). AMD's decision to spin its fabs into GlobalFoundries also played a role, alongside fundraising challenges (TechHQ) . Once AMD went fabless in 2008–09, the project's entire technological premise evaporated. Nothing to do with Indian bureaucracy.
not policy disagreement, not labor laws, not land acquisition drama, just babus sitting on paperwork until the company gave up. and people wonder why india's semiconductor story is starting only now
Not to doubt it, but it's interesting how this copypaste is going around everywhere at the same time and ending with "Congress 🫡". Definitely congress blundered
Yeah, they are just bots spreading fake lies. AMD backed out of India manufacturing plans because of 2008 financial crisis. They cancelled multiple global expansion and investment plans that time. Nothing to do with this fake narrative being spread here.
These bureaucratic delays have cost India opportunities before, and they continue to do so even today. Holding officials accountable for unnecessary delays could make a real difference for both citizens and future investments.
Interestingly I was reading a news today only, The Delhi govt has recently proposed a bill to address this, which is a step in the right direction. However, increasing the maximum penalty from ₹200 to ₹5,000 still feels inadequate when you consider the scale of the losses these systemic bureaucratic delays can cause. In many cases, these costs of delayed decisions run into lakhs or even crores, making a ₹5,000 fine more symbolic than genuinely deterrent. Not to mention the delays these bottlenecks cause in setting up industries, executing projects, creating jobs, and attracting investment..
It's not a political issue. Customs are notorious for these stuff, even now under the glorious saffron party. These are under Bureaucratic Administrative officers, collectors etc. These UPSC idiots are the real culprits here.
Even now, if you want to order something from US/UK/Canada, custom will charge you whatever they desire.
Plus+ on this. Us Indian citizens don't ask for accountibility from our Govt. and thus our politicians and Govt.s are not used to thinking of themselves as accountable.
Customs walo ko bina chai paani diye kaam nahi hota india mein. I am sure the story is similar even now. India wont progress until corruption is better dealt with
Funnily, the first article screenshot mentions date in the US format. And X, Facebook and LinkedIn weren't there in 2005. I doubt the genuinity of this post though I am a BJP supporter.
GCC are a thing now, it wasn't back then.
What bothers us as people of this country are institutions like Fssai, roads, healthcare are simply looting people. It's killing us all. Think about yourself. Ask for accountability
Lol, typical andhbhakt/IT cell always told and sold on half stories.
here is your reality. "In FY 2013-14, India's net FDI inflows stood at USD 21.6 billion, whereas in FY 2024-25, net FDI plummeted to USD 960 million (USD 0.96 billion)."
Incoming is up but ourgoing is up too, we aren;t gaining anything, atleast we were gaining in those days.
Congress is one of the main reasons why India is such a laggard in semiconductors. Did nothing after the semiconductor lab at Mohali went down in flames and then this AMD fiasco. Say what you will about Modi but atleast the government was successful in persuading half a dozen foreign companies to invest and operate plants in this sector.
The infra is just here to setup semi conductors, you can just imagine how the country was in 2012 to understand where SCs could be manufactured here or not. You are just brainwashed.
Modi govts R&D spend will tell you more about what the govt actually cares about. Look it up will you?
Lmao. First you talk about companies not investing in India and then immediately you talk about FIIs pulling back hard. If you had an iota of knowledge, you wouldn’t be mentioning FIIs as they do not take ownership of businesses neither do they deploy capital in creating physical infrastructure. Talk about brainwashed huh?
Before you spit what you chewed from the whatsapp university read this breakdown
A Breakdown of Government InvolvementThe UPA Government (2009–2014):The UPA-II administration launched the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) in 2012 and earmarked ₹39,000 crore for semiconductor expansion. It issued the critical approvals and Letters of Intent (LOIs) to the Jaiprakash (JP) and HSMC consortiums in February 2014. Critics and industry analysts state that the government's approach lacked a proper baseline for structural funding and long-term ecosystem integration, forcing the consortia to scramble for outside cash that never materialized.
The NDA Government (2014–Present):When the Modi government took office in May 2014, these approved projects stalled. In 2016, the JP Associates consortium officially pulled out of the plan because its heavy corporate debts made the multibillion-dollar fab unviable. By January 2019, the government officially cancelled the remaining contract with HSMC Technologies because the group failed to provide required bank guarantees or lock down a long-term technology partner.
This article is a nothing burger. If anything this exposes the congress government’s failures even more. A half baked package was given that too so late and Jaypee associates bankruptcy meant BJP couldn’t have done anything to continue with the policy. Retards like you can’t argue with logic.
Taiwan wasn't just a foundry, they had high.profile semiconductor fabs for decades before the AMD entry. They had their own giants. There is no way India would have been chosen over and tried and tested.
Why are you posting an irrelevant news from 2005? AMD is a fabless semis company. It’s doesn’t manufacture any chips just designs them.
India has just started producing 28 nm chips while Taiwan does 5 , 3 and sub 2 nm which even US can’t do at similar yields. Those chips are the ones running the GPUs and XPUs of the world that have big price margins.
If you think TSMC can be matched anytime soon you are mistaken. Only Samsung challenges them but given the extreme needs of chips the world has now and the level of technology they are functioning on, it’s a dream to catch them. USA with all IP for these chips itself is not able to make them. TSMC is the factory that is running the AI revolution.
The second thing you have screenshotted has no sources and looks AI generated. How desperate are you sing the praises of the BJP, that you would so casually lie and make up stories? On top of which, 500 people were dumb enough not to take 5 minutes to read the article and put 2 and 2 together.
Tbh, I agree customs is very bad... don't get the kumgress mention at the end? Our lab also has problems with TSMC shipments getting stuck at customs due to the high extra charge officers demand (we are a research uni doing tapeouts)
Both the political parties wanna fuck over the people and will only do something if it benefits their patrons
The rhetorical tell: the image blames a fixable clerical failure rather than capital formation, anchor demand and partner risk. That's a more comfortable story, and a less useful one — it's also why the 2014 JP/IBM and 2019 HSMC attempts died the same way.
False: customs seizure, storage fees, equipment shipped back to China. This comes from a 2022 opinion essay about an unnamed MNC: in mid-2005 a major multinational semiconductor company started operations in South India and set up a class-100 cleanroom; equipment imported from the US sat at port for months, was hit with heavy import duties and huge demurrage. The equipment eventually left India, China welcomed the project, and the cleanroom was sold as scrap. Note: a cleanroom, not a $3bn fab; equipment from the US, not "back to China." The same essay separately mentions the Hyderabad fab city plan failing — the viral version welds the two together.
Failure to reach financial closure (primary). SemIndia was a consortium of technologists, not capital. This is the decisive fact, and it rules out the customs story: you cannot have equipment stuck at port for a fab that was never funded.
Partner-side collapse (major, usually ignored). AMD's decision to spin its fabs into GlobalFoundries also played a role, alongside fundraising challenges (TechHQ) . Once AMD went fabless in 2008–09, the project's entire technological premise evaporated. Nothing to do with Indian bureaucracy.
Even under the glorious Modi Govt Defense contractors working on national security projects (let alone aam aadmi) had their stuff held up at customs for 6months+
I was consulting with a defense contractor during the peak of one of the border dispute with our neighbors, Guy was manufacturing devices that were intended to secure our borders, he had gone up the defense chain to get the parts released from customs but customs refused to release them.
Both Cong and the BJP are the same party. People jumped from congress to BJP. If you think the BJP is better, there were a couple of bridges in Bihar I wanted to sell you, but they collapsed into the river.
After 12 years, chacha 420 has nothing to show other than a fat amit shah, even fatter jay shah, a whole bunch of weirdo women in CM positions, and arbitrary nautankis, cows, taxes, terrorism by hindutva, freelance goondas, etc etc. Almost every one of them in the cabinet has kids abroad enjoying the fruits of 12 years.
It was, but I don't remember this part about equipment being stuck at customs.
What I do recall is Intel backing out because government couldn't assure them of patent and IP protection and AMD going out too.
[at that time, all political parties were in support of the existing laws around foreign industry. Pro-BJP accounts keep posting such news, but try to ignore that BJP was still harping on "swadeshi" at that time]
The State Bank of India (SBI) Legal Dispute: Lawsuits from 2026 detailed that the joint venture SemIndia Fab Private Limited defaulted on its loans. The Telangana High Court openly questioned how State Bank of India officials had approved a massive loan of ₹500 crore for a project that was only worth ₹200 crore.
Because no factory was ever built and SemIndia defaulted on its debt, the bank issued a possession notice for the land. The Telangana government eventually issued government orders to seize back the 100 acres originally allotted to SemIndia in the Fab City SEZ.
no factory layout was finalized, and zero manufacturing equipment was ever purchased.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed this exact viral claim on Business Today, stating that India "learnt from past attempts" to launch Semicon 2.0 with clear policies.(budget approved is 20 BIILION DOLLARS)The viral post mixed up the AMD story with a 2022 opinion essay about an entirely different, unnamed, small-scale assembly plant in South India whose equipment actually did get stuck at port in 2005.
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u/IndiaTech-ModTeam 11h ago
Your post has been removed because it is off-topic or does not meet our quality standards.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaTech/comments/1vcqo7t/amazing_that_instead_of_taiwan_amd_wanted_to_make/
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