Dholera Fab Crosses 50% — Cleanroom Installation Underway, First Silicon December 2026
The Tata–PSMC fabrication plant at Dholera, Gujarat — India's first commercial chip fab — has crossed the halfway construction mark. Foundations are complete. Cleanroom installation is now underway. First silicon is targeted for December 2026.
The ₹91,000 crore Tata Electronics–PSMC fab at Dholera, Gujarat crossed 50% construction completion in early July 2026 — confirmed by Tata Electronics MD Dr. Randhir Thakur and Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Foundations are complete; the facility is now in its most technically demanding phase: cleanroom installation, equipment integration, and process calibration.
Key milestones surrounding the construction progress: ASML framework agreement signed for EUV/DUV lithography equipment (May 2026); SEZ notified for the Dholera site (April 9, 2026); INOX Air Products has begun constructing a specialty gas facility on-site — the first ecosystem supplier anchoring around the fab. The 300mm fab is designed for up to 50,000 wafer starts per month at 28nm–110nm process nodes, targeting automotive chips, industrial microcontrollers, AI accelerators, and IoT devices. Over 20,000 direct skilled jobs expected.
Trial production and first silicon remain targeted for December 2026. If the timeline holds, India moves from a country that packages imported chips to a country that fabricates its own within 6 months.
First silicon at Dholera is a threshold event — not a finish line, but a signal that changes India's position in every global semiconductor supply chain conversation. The profiles of engineers required shift: OSAT operators remain the largest workforce category, but process engineers, yield engineers, equipment engineers, and cleanroom technicians become the scarce, high-value roles. Institutions building programmes now should be designing for where the talent demand will be in 2027–28, not just what's operational today. INOX's specialty gas facility at Dholera is also the first hard evidence that the ecosystem is building around the fab — not just waiting for it.