“I had put up my feet happily, and was enjoying eating and sleeping,” the 64-year-old India-born Singapore national said. “Eating and sleeping,” he added for emphasis. This bliss was, however, interrupted by a phone call.

An acquaintance had rung him saying that Dou Yee Enterprises, a Singaporean company that specialises in semiconductor equipment and materials, was looking for someone to lead its operations in India.

Ayub was initially hesitant, but when it turned out that he would be based in Tamil Nadu – he was born in Cuddalore, a port city in the state – and would be part of the effort to help Dou Yee grow in India’sbooming and increasingly attractive semiconductor market, he lapped up the opportunity.

“I thought, why not take up this challenge in our hometown?” said Ayub, who relocated from Singapore to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, with his wife in December 2025. “There is a lot of potential for Dou Yee to grow in India,” he added.

Ayub, now a branch manager for the firm in India, was among the many Singaporean participants at the recently held SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, the third edition of the annual flagship summit for India’s semiconductor industry.

As the country’s semiconductor market gallops ahead and is projected to surpass US$200 billion(S$256 billion) by FY2035 from the current US$64 billion – India has a key priority. It wants to indigenise its semiconductor supply chain to boost self-reliance, improve technological competitiveness and create jobs for its youth.

It is a goal currently embodied by an empty nail on a wall in a ministerial office room in New Delhi. IndianMinister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, who studied electronic engineering at college and is keenly following semiconductor-related developments, told a packed hall of reporters and industry representatives at the summit in September that he had marked out the empty spot on his wall to proudly display India’s first locally made semiconductor wafer.

Powering this journey from its current nascent manufacturing stage to a thriving domestic semiconductor ecosystem are numerous foreign companies, including those from Singapore. These companies bring a range of expertise that spans the value chain and hope to profit from the many opportunities that India has to offer.

“We have garnered a lot of experience through the years,” said Ang Wee Seng, executive director of the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association, referring to Singapore’s diverse semiconductor ecosystem that took root in 1968.

Since then, it has grown to extend across the entire value chain, encompassing everything from research and development to front-end manufacturing and back-end testing. “So we bring to the table… a complete ecosystem that supports the semiconductor industry already,” he told The Straits Times at SEMICON India 2026.

A record 27 Singapore-based companies exhibited at the Singapore Pavilion at the summit in 2026 – up from 10 in 2024, highlighting growing interest in India, which has been aided by bilateral engagement ranging from ministerial roundtables to industry delegation visits.

Singaporean companies have also secured semiconductor contracts worth over $180 million in India since 2024. They have also invested over $20million in the country, hiring over 300 employees to support the development of some of India’s key government-backed semiconductor projects aimed at attracting supply chains, material vendors, and equipment makers.

Another such big-ticket project is the American multinational Micron Technology’s semiconductor assembly and test plant in Gujarat’s Sanand. Developed with an investment of US$2.75 billion, this facility began commercial production in 2026.

Singapore setting foot

“We are interested in engaging India because of its very strong growth trajectory,” said Tan Soon Kim, deputy managing director of Enterprise Singapore.

“Clearly, semiconductors are a sector which we see is poised to take off in India.”

Some of the Singaporean companies already present in India’s growing semiconductor market include Industrial Vision Technology (IVT), a manufacturer of test and factory automation equipment, and Chasen Holdings Limited, which specialises in the relocation and installation of high-tech semiconductor equipment.

A good illustration of the deepening Singaporean engagement in India is Specmax Techno, a Singapore-based engineering company that specialises in semiconductor manufacturing engineering and high-purity piping installations necessary for semiconductor manufacturing units.

Starting with business worth around 100 million rupees (S$1.33 million) in 2024, the year it started operations in India, it has now surpassed 1 billion rupees. “There has been much progress in this (Indian semiconductor) field, but the only problem is securing the materials,” said Dr. M. Gopinath, the Chennai-based operation manager for Specmax Techno.

The firm currently relies on imported equipment, such as gas valves from Taiwan, often leading to waiting periods that can extend up to 18 weeks and thereby delaying project timelines.

As a partial workaround, the firm has begun constructing a manufacturing unit in Tindivanam in Tamil Nadu that is expected to begin production of some of the equipment Specmax Techno currently imports in June 2027.

Built with an investment of around 2 billion rupees, it will also include a training institute to equip workers with the skills to handle its equipment for the firm’s clients. And if all goes well, Specmax Techno also hopes to start a semiconductor fabrication plant near India’s tech hub Bengaluru, in Karnataka, before 2030.

The optimism around India’s semiconductor ecosystem was palpable at the SEMICON India summit, which attracted around 40,000 visitors from over 50 countries. The event also featured dedicated country pavilions from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Singapore.

Five out of the 12 approved projects under Semicon 1.0 – the Indian government’s support programme launched in December 2021 to build a resilient semiconductor ecosystem – have already begun production. The second iteration of this mission was approved in July with a budget of 1.27 trillion rupees to further accelerate this goal.