Can India manufacture DRAM memory chips at scale?

India imports 80–90% of the semiconductors it uses, and for DRAM — the working memory inside every phone, server and laptop — the dependence is near total. As of 2025 the country fabricated none of its own.

DRAM is hard for reasons that compound. The chips must be patterned at sub-micron scale; the leading production nodes require extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a light source and optical system that only a handful of firms on Earth can build. It demands ultra-pure 300mm silicon wafers, specialty gases and photoresists made by a narrow global supply base, and deposition and etch tools from ASML, Lam and Applied Materials. More than 90% of the world's memory production sits with three companies — Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. Only seven nations possess the capability at all.

India's entry begins at the back end of the process. On 1 March 2026 Micron inaugurated the country's first semiconductor assembly and test facility at Sanand, Gujarat, a Rs 22,516 crore plant that converts pre-made wafers into finished DRAM and NAND modules — the first shipment went to Dell. CG Power opened a pilot OSAT line at Sanand in August 2025. Firms like Om Nanotech assemble imported DRAM into DDR4 and DDR5 modules in Noida. Tata Electronics is building India's first silicon fab at Dholera with Taiwan's PSMC, a Rs 91,526 crore project notified as a Special Economic Zone in April 2026, alongside an ATMP facility in Assam; production is expected to ramp from 2027–2028.

But assembly is not fabrication. Every plant now running converts wafers made elsewhere. The structural gap sits beneath: no commercial DRAM fab, no EUV exposure capability, no native wafer or specialty-chemical supply, no domestic equipment base, and — critically for the AI era — no High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) 3D stacking, the technology AI accelerators now depend on. The design layer is nascent too; India has engineering talent but no mature DRAM design portfolio. Institutions like ISRO's Semiconductor Laboratory and DRDO's STARC run older strategic nodes for space and defence, not memory.

The timing sharpens the stakes: a 2026 DRAM shortage, driven by AI servers pulling capacity toward HBM, is pushing prices up 90–95%.

Closing the gap means moving from packaging inward — standing up wafer fabrication, then securing the materials, tools and design IP beneath it. The India Semiconductor Mission has approved 10 projects worth Rs 1.60 lakh crore as of December 2025. The stated ambition is capability for 70–75% of domestic demand by 2029, with 3nm and 2nm nodes targeted under a later phase.