Tower dropped India wafer fab project in 2024, says CEO

Business news | May 15, 2025

By Peter Clarke

Analog RF transmission foundry Optoelectronics Power Management

Specialty foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Migdal Haemek, Israel) withdrew from a plan to build a wafer fab in India “five or six months ago” according to CEO Russell Ellwanger.

Speaking during an analysts’ conference call to discuss Tower’s steady 1Q25 financial results, Ellwanger said that a recent report that Adani Group had paused the US$10 billion project is not true.

“It [the news report] came as a surprise because we stopped the project and at our request we withdrew from the project some five, six months ago,” said Ellwanger. “The reasons we withdrew are very good reasons, but again out of confidentiality it would not be proper for me to go into those reasons,” he added.

Ellwanger said that Tower had never press released any information about the project while the company was engaged in it because there was never any formal agreement to go ahead and for same reason they didn’t press release their withdrawal from the project.

Tower’s engagement in India has a troubled history that goes back to 2012 when it was part of a consortium with Jai Prakash Associates and IBM. That plan flopped as did a proposal that Tower provide IP and management services to a consortium based around Abu-Dhabi based Next Orbit Ventures back in 2017 (see VC wants to reboot Indian wafer fab plans).

The Indian state of Maharashtra approved a plan for a US$10 billion chip plant to be set up by foundry Tower Semiconductor and the Indian conglomerate Adani Group in September 2024 but the plan still awaited central government approval to qualify for subsidies under an Indian government scheme.

Tower wins state approval for US$10 billion Indian fab

Elsewhere in the call Tower reported its 1Q25 revenues were US$358 million, up 9 percent compared to $327 million for 1Q24. The net profit for 1Q25 was US$40 million compared with US$45 million a year before.

In a statement Ellwanger commented: “Tower delivered continued record revenue in RF infrastructure, which includes SiPho and SiGe. We target further revenue growth of these technologies throughout the year, increases in our high voltage 200mm power management business and higher revenue levels in our sensors business. Additionally, we have entered a new served market for Tower, namely envelope trackers, using our 300mm technology platform. In the face of geo-political uncertainties, we are leveraging Tower’s global scale and technology breadth into new opportunities.”

Tower gave a positive outlook for 2Q25 with revenue expected to be up at US$372 million, plus or minus 5 percent, which would reflect a 6 percent revenue increase compared with 2Q24.