HCLTech's latest move may have been to close "critical gaps in India’s semiconductor landscape", but investors were seemingly uninterested, given today’s stock movement.
Earlier in the day, one of India’s foremost IT firms, HCLTech, announced the launch of its Advanced Semiconductor Lab in Bengaluru, Karnataka, with a total investment of ₹185 crore.
The "state-of-the-art" lab "marks a significant milestone in HCLTech’s commitment to advancing semiconductor innovation and accelerating time-to-market for global clients and positions HCLTech as a pioneer among service providers in offering integrated semiconductor testing capabilities," the company announced.
The 40,000 sq ft Advanced Semiconductor Lab "delivers end-to-end post-silicon engineering, advanced testing and failure analysis," it added, and that its "cleanroom houses the latest ATE testers, probes, qualification chambers and advanced failure analysis tools, including optical and electron microscopy and focused ion beam (FIB) systems."
Shares of HCLTech, which hit a morning session high of ₹1,290 apiece, barely flinched at the news in afternoon trade, which saw it edge down to red territory on the NSE.
Finally, the Nifty50 constituent stock closed at ₹1,277 apiece, recording a 0.45 per cent fall from the previous close on the NSE.
IT stocks have been under pressure from crude pricing and other global cues over the past few months. The 30-pack BSE Sensex today closed 555 points lower at 75,577.58, while the Nifty closed 144 points down at 23,635.10. Nifty IT index also edged down 111 points or 0.37 per cent.
For India, where semiconductor labs are the need of the hour, especially at a time when AI companies are becoming complicit in driving hardware prices and bottlenecking supply chains, the latest HCLTech lab could add to the IT firm’s strengths. According to HCLTech, the facility is equipped with tools such as Teradyne, Advantest, Keysight, Tektronix, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, to support research and development, pre-production and production qualification, and enable faster turnaround for global customers.
