Reliance Industries plans to invest up to $221 million in American electronics firm Sanmina to set up a joint venture as the Indian giant looks to expand its electronics manufacturing.
The joint venture aims to create a “world-class” electronic manufacturing hub in India, the two said. It will prioritize high technology infrastructure hardware, for growth markets, and across industries such as communications networking (5G, cloud infrastructure, hyperscale datacenters), medical and healthcare systems, industrial and cleantech, and defense and aerospace.
All the manufacturing will initially take place at Sanmina’s 100-acre campus in Chennai, with the ability for site expansion to support future growth opportunities as well as to potentially expand to new manufacturing sites in India over time based on business needs, they said.
The joint venture will also create a “Manufacturing Technology Center of Excellence” to, among other things, support the product development and hardware startup ecosystem in India.
Reliance Strategic Business Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, will own a 50.1% in the joint venture, India’s largest company said in a filing with stock exchange. The American firm partnered with EV maker Ather Energy in 2018 to develop and manufacture key components for the scooter.
“We are delighted to work with Sanmina to access the significant market opportunity for high-tech manufacturing in India,” said Akash Ambani, Director of Reliance Jio, in a statement.
“For both growth and security, it is essential for India to be more self-reliant in electronics manufacturing in Telecom, IT, Data Centers, Cloud, 5G, New Energy and other industries as we chart our path in the new digital economy. Through this partnership we plan to boost innovation and talent in India, meeting both Indian and global demand.”
Thursday’s move is the latest from an Indian giant to expand its electronics manufacturing in the country as Narendra Modi’s government makes broad effort to boost domestic production. Vedanta Group last month inked a partnership with Taiwan’s Foxconn to make semiconductors in the country.
India’s government is offering almost $7 billion of incentives to boost the electronics manufacturing sector.
