Vedanta Foxconn’s semiconductor plant progressing as scheduled, says CEO David Reed.

Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductors Ltd., a joint venture between Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta and Taiwan’s Foxconn, says the setting up of the chip plant is progressing as per schedule and that Foxconn has already recruited 200-400 engineers for the project.

The company has also entered into agreements with two other firms to conduct research on 28- and 40-nanometer chips, David Reed, CEO of the JV, told businessline.

“One of the companies is Imec, an R&D group in Belgium and the Netherlands, for research on 28-nm chips, which requires work to make it high volume (production). The second one is for 40-nm, full-fledged manufacturing of high-volume (chips used in both) automotive and non-automotive (industries),” Reed said, adding that he didn’t want to name the other company owing to a non-disclosure agreement.

Refuting any setback to the ongoing process of setting up the plant in Dholera, Gujarat, Reed said, “We’re not stopping, regardless of what is happening; in fact, my entire week was spent hiring people. We are constantly in touch with the government and the authorities. We have sent out a request for quotes for the work in Dholera.”

The objective is to hire across levels, “and for my staff, we have hired six out of the 14 people and plan to have all 14 on board by this December,” he said, adding that the soil is being levelled and packed right now at the site, to set up the wafer fab.

HBL