One Station Past the Fab: What the Kaynes Semicon and NI Story Says About India’s Five New Chip Plants

Most tech coverage of the chip boom ends at the fabrication plant, but a device is only shippable after someone proves it works. That proving step — assembly and test, handled by outsourced assembly and test operators, the OSATs — is where India’s expansion is now being measured, and it is a useful lesson in how a supply-chain story changes shape when you look one station further down the line. Five semiconductor plants are already at commercial scale, and the discussion around Kaynes Semicon and NI is less about whether chips can be made than about how quickly each one can be checked.

The number that frames this story

The spending behind that checking step is moving fast. SEMI’s July 2026 forecast has global semiconductor test equipment sales rising 31% to $15.3 billion in 2026, immediately after 55.3% growth in 2025, with $20.8 billion expected in 2028.

For general readers the takeaway is simple: the machines that verify chips are becoming a bigger slice of industry budgets than most headlines acknowledge. For an Indian OSAT, the same forecast raises the bar on several fronts at once — juggling different device types, meeting production targets, keeping test coverage intact, modernizing legacy platforms, and building test architectures for chips that have never been produced.

How the Kaynes and NI pairing surfaced the issue

The story became visible in September 2025, when Emerson announced a partnership with Kaynes Semicon to make the NI Semiconductor Test System (STS) the primary test platform at the OSAT facility in Sanand, Gujarat. EE Times discussed the rollout with Karthik Balasekar, chief business manager for semiconductor and electronics, and Ved Mahanta, principal account manager — both at NI India, part of Emerson.

Neither manager framed the deal as a ribbon-cutting. Buying a tester, they explained, is closer to hiring a long-term supplier: qualification comes first, delivery follows, and the equipment is only counted as “in place” once it clears that process.

The buying cycle nobody posts about

“Customers typically conduct tester qualification before making a final purchasing decision,” Mahanta said, putting that window at six months to one year. He continued: “The process generally takes six months to one year. In the case of Kaynes, we can publicly state that the company has decided to proceed with NI testers. We are in the process of delivering the testers in the coming months.”

Mahanta added that conversations with other OSAT facilities remained under way, many still qualifying test equipment, and that NI could not name some companies because their engagements were not publicly disclosed.

A capacity headline is not an engineering answer

Here is the part that surprises most readers. When a facility says it can produce 15 million chips a year, the figure says nothing about how many testers that requires: a device finished under a minute and one that takes five to 10 minutes can support identical annual output with very different equipment.

“Facilities handling millions of devices may need fewer testers if each test takes less than a minute,” Balasekar said. “Testing complex chips that require five or 10 minutes per device could demand more equipment to meet the same production target.”

“An OSAT might announce an annual capacity of 14 million or 15 million chips, for example. Such figures generally represent the combined output capacity of its production lines, whether the facility operates 10 lines, 50 lines, or another number,” Mahanta said. He noted that NI Emerson has not publicly disclosed a specific number of test systems for Kaynes, compared OSAT capacity statements with vehicle output claims from automotive plants, and stressed that “Actual production depends on customer demand,” not the announced ceiling alone.

For simpler chips, the arithmetic comes down to pin count and the tests required: fewer pins and a lighter test plan let the same bench process more devices.

Throughput tools: speed without dropping coverage

On a production line the priority is testing as many chips as possible in the shortest time while confirming they meet specifications. TestStand, NI’s test automation platform, automates sequences so batch disposition decisions arrive faster, according to Mahanta.

Balasekar said Kaynes’s choice reflects a need for platforms that handle different semiconductor device types. “Our STS is a platform that supports both mixed-signal and RF applications,” he said. “For example, if Kaynes tests mixed-signal products today and moves to RF products later, it can reuse the same STS tester for different devices under test.”

Two jobs on one bench: old parts and first-time designs

Flexibility alone does not resolve the problem, because test architecture depends on whether the OSAT handles an established chip or a new design. “Typically, customers want to test two types of devices: legacy devices and new products, commonly referred to as new product development,” Mahanta said, with legacy lines often running on older platforms that no longer deliver required throughput. “OSATs need to move these products to newer systems without compromising test coverage,” he added, noting that customers often do much of the preparatory work and specify what the OSAT must test.

New designs bring another issue, especially when the customer is a semiconductor startup. “Some Indian startups developing their own chips have never performed final testing and depend on the OSAT to guide them,” Mahanta said. “The OSAT must help determine how to test each device reliably and quickly enough to meet production and time-to-market requirements.”

Because new devices carry no legacy technical debt, the OSAT may still have to build a test architecture from scratch. “This includes determining the test requirements, selecting an appropriate system, and ensuring that it meets test coverage and throughput targets,” Mahanta said, noting, “Such a system could come from NI Emerson or another test equipment supplier.”

Balasekar said both challenges — migrating established products to newer test platforms and developing architectures for new devices — become harder as design complexity rises.

Modular hardware and AI: absorbing change

As devices add functionality, OSATs need systems that absorb changing requirements without eroding existing coverage. Mahanta pointed to modular PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) systems that let customers add modules for new tests without altering existing test parameters: “Customers can expand their testing capabilities as their requirements evolve.”

For new devices, NI applies AI to parts of test development, including the initial design of test architectures. An engineer could upload a chip’s datasheet to NI’s Nigel AI test development tool, which examines selected parameters and suggests a potential test architecture. “The engineer could then use the suggested framework as a starting point rather than developing the entire architecture from scratch,” Mahanta explained.

He was careful about the limits: “This approach targets part of the work involved in test development, rather than replacing the validation engineer,” Mahanta said. “AI could take on some repetitive tasks, leaving engineers to focus on more complex problem-solving.”

Policy, skills and the human side of scaling

Under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 (ISM 2.0), Ashwini Vaishnaw said at SEMICON India 2026 that government focus will span six areas, including advanced packaging and testing units and talent. For OSATs, that makes test system flexibility, device qualification, and the ability to accommodate different device requirements relevant to the industry’s next growth phase.

Mahanta said NI has invested in local engineering capabilities so its engineers can support OSAT customers on site, reducing the need to bring specialists from Taiwan and Singapore. He also cited Tessolve, an NI partner serving customers globally, as an example of an Indian company participating in the testing ecosystem.

“There are integrated device manufacturers that base 40% to 50% of their product lines in India,” Mahanta said. “Building engineering expertise will be essential for Indian companies seeking to serve global semiconductor manufacturers.”

Balasekar warned that growth in OSATs and electronics manufacturing could outpace the availability of skilled workers, with India’s electronic device exports and expanding mobile phone manufacturing base adding demand. He pointed to the workforce development component of ISM 2.0 as one way to close the gap. “I think that will help India grow faster and keep pace with the market’s expansion,” he said.

Checklist: five questions to ask of any plant announcement

1. What is the test time per device? A claimed 15 million chips a year means little until you know whether each check runs under a minute or five to 10 minutes.
2. Which lines does the number bundle? Capacity statements usually combine output across 10 lines, 50 lines or another configuration.
3. Has qualification finished? A partnership and a delivered tester are different milestones; the window is six months to one year.
4. Can one platform serve mixed-signal and RF work? Reusability across devices under test changes future equipment spend.
5. Who staffs it? Local engineering support and workforce pipelines decide whether hardware converts into steady output.

Common misconceptions

Assumption readers often make	What the interview record shows
A published annual capacity is guaranteed output.	Mahanta is blunt that “Actual production depends on customer demand,” and that capacity figures bundle many production lines.
One announced number equals one equipment bill.	Test duration per device drives tester count; per-device time and pin count change the answer.
A signed partnership means machines are already running.	Qualification precedes the purchase decision, and delivery was described as happening over the coming months.
AI test tools retire the engineer.	The stated scope is part of test development, not the replacement of the validation engineer.
Building plants is the whole task.	Both managers flagged skilled-worker supply, with the workforce component of ISM 2.0 named as the lever.

FAQ

What is an OSAT, in everyday terms?

An outsourced assembly and test operator is the company that finishes a manufactured chip and proves it works before it goes into a phone, a car or a server. Think of it as quality control plus final assembly for electronics, run at industrial scale.

Why does test time matter to someone who never buys equipment?

Because test time is a hidden gate on supply. If each unit needs several minutes of checking, the same line cannot deliver the same volume as one where checks finish in seconds, and end-product availability follows.

How large is the test-equipment market right now?

Per the SEMI July 2026 forecast quoted above: $15.3 billion in 2026 after 55.3% growth in 2025, heading to $20.8 billion in 2028.

Which Indian facility anchors this story?

Kaynes Semicon’s OSAT site in Sanand, Gujarat, where the NI Semiconductor Test System was announced as the primary test platform following the September 2025 Emerson partnership.

Is this only an India story?

The equipment forecast is global. The India angle is timing: five semiconductor plants scaling at once put the assembly-and-test layer under simultaneous load.

Action advice

• Track qualification calendars, not announcement dates. Treat “partnered” and “delivering testers” as separate milestones.
• Read capacity numbers as ranges. Ask what share of the claimed output is committed demand.
• Watch test-equipment spend as a leading indicator for when device launches actually reach shelves.
• For product and market teams: confirm with suppliers whether a site can host both legacy migration and new product development on one platform.
• For readers following policy: the talent component of ISM 2.0 is as decisive as factory count.

Assembly and test rarely make the front page, but it is the station where a national chip ambition is either converted into shipping units or quietly stuck. The next meaningful signal is not another plant opening; it is how many testers clear qualification and how many engineers are trained to run them. This explainer is published in the General channel of MyTechDailyNews by Tech Daily, written by Sarah Chen — reader questions and story tips can be sent to hello@techdaily.com.