On September 11, Patently Apple posted a report titled "As India’s Prime Minister touts his country’s advantages in semiconductors, a rumor surfaces that Apple is in talks for chips from the Tata Group+." Our report stated that "India is trying to woo more chipmakers into the country, much the same way subsidies have encouraged Apple Inc. to assemble $14 billion in iPhones in the South Asian nation.

Modi’s administration has so far approved more than $15 billion worth of semiconductor investments. These include a proposal by conglomerate Tata Group to build the country’s first major chip plant and US memory maker Micron Technology Inc.’s envisioned $2.75 billion assembly facility in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is seeking to partner with billionaire Gautam Adani for a $10 billion fabrication plant in western India."

Today we're learning that there's been a major move in making India's goal a reality. "The US and India reached an agreement to work together on setting up a semiconductor fabrication plant in the South Asian nation, giving a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to bolster manufacturing in the country.

The proposed plant will make infrared, gallium nitride and silicon-carbide semiconductors, according to a White House readout that followed a meeting between the US President Joe Biden and Modi in Delaware on Saturday. The setting up of the facility will be enabled by support from the India Semiconductor Mission as well as a “strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech Inc, and the U.S. Space Force,” according to the readout.

Earlier this month, India’s technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the South Asian country is attempting to develop the entire chip value chain. India aims to increase its electronics sector to $500 billion by the end of the decade.

For more on this, read the full Bloomberg report (paywall).

Whether this news will move the needle between rumored talks between Apple and the Tata Group is unknown at this time.