ASML, the Dutch maker of the machines that print circuits onto silicon wafers, has started operations in India and plans to hire twenty to thirty young engineering graduates to begin with, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by Business Standard. The company is headquartered in Veldhoven, in the Netherlands, and holds a near-monopoly on the advanced lithography technology that every modern chipmaker depends on.
Lin Kiat Yap, ASML’s Executive Vice President and Head of Customer Support, said the company’s India buildup will scale at the pace set by two things: how fast Tata Electronics’ new chip plant ramps up, and how far India’s own semiconductor ambitions go. Twenty to thirty people is the starting point, he told the wire service, with the pace of hiring after that tied to those two factors.
The India push builds on a strategic partnership ASML signed with Tata Electronics in May 2026. Under that agreement, ASML supplies lithography tools and support for Tata Electronics’ 300-millimeter semiconductor fabrication plant under construction in Dholera, in western India, in the state of Gujarat. The partnership also covers training local talent, strengthening the supply chain and joint research.
Tata Electronics is ASML’s first customer in India running a 300-millimeter fab, with planned production capacity of 50,000 wafers a month. Allan Wayne, ASML’s Chief Strategic Sourcing and Procurement Officer, told the Press Trust of India that the company needs several such fabs in India if it is going to scale its business there, pointing to government policy and the depth of India’s engineering talent as reasons for ASML’s confidence. The Dholera plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2028. Tata Electronics expects to work with 450 vendors to support it, according to the wire report, and is building 363 vendor parks to house them.
India’s Semicon 2.0 program, run by the government, backs this buildout with an incentive package the wire report put at $13.5 billion. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said investment proposals worth $12 billion are likely to come forward under the new scheme. By 2032, ASML expects India to account for 15% to 25% of its own local semiconductor demand in wafer fab terms, which Wayne said will require several fabs in the country by then.
Why this matters
ASML rarely enters a new country lightly: its lithography machines are the choke point of the entire chip industry, and it does not open local operations until it can see real demand from a real customer on the ground. Its arrival in India, tied directly to Tata Electronics’ first advanced fab, is one of the clearest signals yet that India’s semiconductor push has moved from subsidy announcements to actual equipment orders. For American and European companies weighing whether India’s chip ecosystem is real, ASML’s decision to start hiring is a solid data point.
