German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies is expanding its engagement with India's nascent chip manufacturing ecosystem through partnerships with Mohali-based Continental Device India Ltd. (CDIL) Semiconductors and Sanand-based Kaynes Semicon, according to a senior executive. It is also evaluating collaborations with more projects from the 12 approved under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), the executive said.Neubiberg-headquartered Infineon Technologies ranks among the top ten semiconductor companies globally. The company was originally founded as a spin-off from Siemens AG.Led by chief executive Jochen Hanebeck, Infineon focuses on microcontrollers, power semiconductors and sensors targeted at driving global decarbonisation and digitalisation.The company has already begun transferring packaging expertise to Kaynes and CDIL, and expects to eventually procure packaged semiconductor components from them once their facilities complete qualification and ramp-up processes, Vinay Shenoy, managing director of Infineon Technologies India, told ET."We said we'll start using the capacity. Kaynes is one publicly announced project. CDIL is the second. There are others in early stages of conversations, and we'll only expand consuming capacity," he said.The partnerships form part of Infineon's strategy to support India's semiconductor manufacturing ambitions without building its own local packaging capacity. The company plans to leverage facilities being established with government support."Even if you have two choices—invest in building capacity or consume the capacity—so much investment has gone in from the government and these capacities have been built. It's also critical that those capacities are consumed," Shenoy said.Infineon is working with Kaynes on packaging silicon MEMS microphones used in smartphones and wireless earbuds. With CDIL, the company is collaborating on power semiconductor devices, beginning with lower-end MOSFETs used in home appliances, air conditioners, washing machines and inverter systems.According to Shenoy, the company's objective is not just technology transfer, but to develop suppliers that can eventually package semiconductor dies and supply finished components back to Infineon."The idea is to buy back packaged devices. We want Kaynes or CDIL to become suppliers that package devices where we give them a bare die, they package it and give it back to us," he said.The company is also in discussions with additional ISM-approved projects, though details remain confidential because of non-disclosure agreements.Shenoy said virtually all major semiconductor projects approved under the government's semiconductor programme have approached global chipmakers for business opportunities."Others have also approached us. We just have to find the right opportunities. I don't see a reason why we cannot work with them," he said.The move comes as New Delhi pushes to localise semiconductor manufacturing and electronics supply chains through incentives under the semiconductor mission and production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.Shenoy said local packaging could help electronics manufacturers increase domestic value addition and qualify for higher localisation incentives."If you package a device in India, it will be considered made in India. Our customers can gain the benefit of higher localisation content. They see that as a commitment from Infineon to help them localise further," he said.While the company remains focused on developing the Indian ecosystem, Shenoy clarified that the strategy is aimed primarily at serving domestic demand rather than turning India into an export manufacturing base."For Infineon, if I produce here and export to China, Korea or Europe, then India is just a tactical operations facility. Our focus is India for India right now, on how to develop the Indian downstream ecosystem of electronics," he said.Separately, Shenoy said Infineon plans to expand its India operations significantly over the next three years. The company, which currently employs about 3,200 people in India, has taken up approximately 650,000 sq ft of new office space in Bengaluru and expects to increase headcount to about 4,500 employees by 2029.The expansion will include two advanced semiconductor laboratories and additional R&D capacity.India already houses around 2,500 of Infineon's roughly 11,000 global R&D engineers, making it the company's second-largest R&D hub outside Germany.