$3 bn worth of investment interest garnered for K'taka during US visit: Minister

Bengaluru: Global semiconductor, aerospace and defense, electric vehicles, space, precision manufacturing and health tech companies from the United States have shown interest in investing over $3 billion in Karnataka.

Some of the global companies are already in the process of investing around $1 billion in the state, Minister for Large and Medium Industries M.B. Patil stated on Thursday.

Speaking about his successful meetings with the US companies, Patil, also Minister for Infrastructure Development, said “We have met some of the prestigious companies in the United States during our visit and we have tried to understand their requirement and have invited them to Karnataka for expansion or collaboration. We had been to the US with a mission and a clear vision for Karnataka and I am happy to share that the visit was fruitful. There is a renewed beginning for the state.”

“We have offered all possible support to the companies to invest in Karnataka and briefed the senior executives of global companies about the state’s ease of doing business, favourable policies, sectorial incentives, and industrial infrastructure built in the state. Our main objective was to showcase Karnataka as an attractive investment destination,” Patil said.

During the recent visit to the US, the delegation held as many as 36 meetings and discussions, comprising 27 one-on-one meetings and 9 interactions with various companies and explored investment opportunities in electronics and semiconductor, aerospace and defence auto/EV, precision manufacturing and Med-tech sectors, he stated.

The delegation held meetings with global companies like Applied Materials, AMD, Juniper, Global Foundries, LAM Research, Boeing, Krypton, Dell, MKS Instruments, GE Healthcare, Intelsat, RTX, Terradyne, Texas Instruments, Apple, and Waters Corp among others. The members also met with a few promising startups like Leolab, Fictive and T-Seconds, he said.

The purpose of the US visit was to highlight Karnataka as a promising destination for investment. It was important considering the fast-changing geo-political dynamics as a large number of global companies are looking at India as an attractive, safe destination for new investment or expanding their existing presence, Patil stated.

Minister for IT/BT and Science and Technology Priyank Kharge joined Patil during the second leg of the visit from September 25 to October 6