NEW DELHI, Sept. 17 -- US semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. plans $5 billion investment in India to build a semiconductor research and development laboratory and develop a local supply chain to support products it builds globally, its top India executive told Mint.

"We'll use the $5 billion investment to build a lab here, a clean room, where we develop products in India,'' Prabu Raja, president of the semiconductor products group, said in an interview. "This means that we'll also need to develop a lot of engineering expertise, for which we will be hiring a lot of people for semiconductor product development."

Raja spoke to Mint on the sidelines of Semicon India 2026 at New Delhi's Yashobhoomi convention centre on Thur...