Samsung to broaden manufacturing portfolio in India: minister

Samsung is expanding its manufacturing portfolio in India, according to Indian union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The South Korean electronics company operates its second-largest mobile phone manufacturing unit in India, making it the country’s second-biggest handset exporter after Apple.

Vaishnaw said Samsung’s Indian research unit employs over 7,000 engineers.

In January 2025, Samsung announced it would increase investment in its R&D centers in Bengaluru and Noida, which are involved in developing AI features for smartphones.

The company also manufactures all smartphones it sells in India, including the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7.

Earlier this year, Samsung indicated plans to begin laptop production in India.

Samsung’s Indian R&D centers are its largest outside South Korea.

🔗 Source: YourStory

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Samsung outpaces Apple in Indian manufacturing despite Apple’s recent surge

While Apple gets significant attention for shifting production to India, Samsung actually maintains a larger manufacturing footprint in the country.

Samsung produced 25% of its global smartphone assembly volume in India in 2024, compared to Apple’s 15%, demonstrating Samsung’s deeper manufacturing commitment to the region 1.

This manufacturing advantage helps explain why Samsung and Apple together control 94% of India’s smartphone exports, with Samsung maintaining its position as the second-largest handset exporter from India after Apple 2.

Samsung’s manufacturing scale becomes more significant when considering that India has overtaken China as the top source of US smartphone shipments, rising from 13% to 44% of market share in just one year 3.

The company’s established infrastructure, including the world’s largest mobile factory opened in Noida in 2018 with a capacity of 120 million phones annually, provides Samsung with manufacturing advantages that newer entrants to Indian production lack 4.