ALPHABET’S Google will begin to make its Chromebook laptops in India, the latest among global tech companies to expand assembly in the key growth market.

Google is partnering with HP to manufacture Chromebooks in the South Asian country, Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said on Monday (Oct 2) on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The move will help Google boost supply in India and compete more effectively with Windows computers from companies such as Dell Technologies and Asustek Computer. It’s also another win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US$2 billion incentive plan to have tech giants make India their production base.

The country of 1.4 billion people has been expanding its electronics manufacturing sector as companies diversify production beyond China amid growing Washington-Beijing tensions.

Local manufacturing will help Google maintain a constant supply in India and avoid any potential curbs on imports. Chromebooks are typically priced at the lower end of the market and have thin profit margins, making them sensitive to any tariff measures.

New Delhi is loosening its planned restrictions on imports of laptops, tablets and other IT hardware, giving manufacturers more time to prepare for potential curbs, Bloomberg reported previously.

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The Chromebooks will be built at a Flex facility near Chennai, in southern India, where HP has been making laptops and desktops since 2020. Production of the Chromebooks is set to start on Oct 2 and they are targeted mainly at the education sector, HP said. BLOOMBERG