New Delhi: ASML, the Dutch firm that builds the world’s most advanced chip-making equipment, has begun operations in India and plans to hire 20 to 30 young engineering graduates to start with, a senior company official said on the sidelines of SEMICON India 2026.

Lin Kiat Yap, the company’s executive vice president and head of customer support, told PTI that the India team would begin small and expand from there. Asked when the company would start operations and scale up, he said the work was beginning now, with an initial team of 20 to 30 people, and added that the pace of growth would depend on the ambitions of India and of Tata.

ASML supplies the advanced lithography technology used to print circuits on silicon wafers, the foundation on which modern chips are built. The company holds a near-monopoly in this technology, and no advanced chip anywhere in the world can be manufactured without its machines.

Scaling tied to Tata Electronics’ chip unit

Yap said ASML’s scale-up plan in India depends on the success of Tata Electronics’ chip unit and on how fast India grows its semiconductor ecosystem. Many of ASML’s customers, he noted, are expanding manufacturing facilities in their own countries as governments push for supply-chain resilience.

He said it was encouraging that Tata was taking the first steps in seeding the ecosystem, adding that it was important to keep growing it by bringing in a second and third player. A successful Tata, he suggested, would convince others to spend more time and attention on India and the opportunities it offers.

At the same event, Allan Wayne, ASML’s chief strategic sourcing and procurement officer, said Tata Electronics is the first customer in India to run a 300-millimetre semiconductor fabrication facility, with a production capacity of 50,000 wafers per month.

Why this matters for India’s chip ambitions

India has been pushing to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem, offering incentives for fabrication plants and chip assembly units. ASML’s entry signals that global equipment makers are starting to take that push seriously, since their business follows where chip factories are being built.

Starting with a young graduate intake suggests ASML plans to train talent locally rather than move senior engineers from abroad. For engineering graduates in India, it opens a direct pathway into the most specialised corner of the global chip industry, one where the skills are rare and the learning curve steep.