Sources say Foxconn plans to join hands with Italian Semiconductor to build a chip factory in India.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens OC_Formula and Mr. Aviation for your clue delivery! CTOnews.com, September 10 (Xinhua)-- after canceling its joint venture with Vedanta, Foxconn Technology Group is in talks with Italian and French semiconductor companies to submit a joint application to build a 40nm semiconductor factory in India, Bloomberg reported.

Foxconn, known mainly for providing assembly services for Apple products, already has a sizeable presence in India, with factories in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu that make iPhone and other Apple accessories.

Although Foxconn has never set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant, it has shown strong interest in setting up a semiconductor plant in India. Last year, the company signed a $19.5 billion chip facility cooperation agreement with Indian mining giant Vedanta. (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 143.325 billion yuan). But Foxconn pulled out of the joint venture in July, saying it would build its own chip plant in India.

India is expected to become the world's new manufacturing center and the supplier ecosystem is likely to grow faster than China, Foxconn chairman and chief executive Liu Yangwei said on Wednesday.

India is trying to increase its chip production to reduce its dependence on expensive imports and on China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged $10 billion to attract chipmakers and promised that the government will bear half the cost of building semiconductor factories, prompting Micron Technologies, an American memory chip company, to announce the construction of a $2.75 billion assembly and testing plant in Modi's home state of Gujarat.