US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced plans to build its largest design centre in India, with an investment of $400 million over the next five years.
“Our India teams will continue to play a pivotal role in delivering the high-performance and adaptive solutions that support AMD customers worldwide,” Papermaster said.
AMD’s Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster made the announcement at an annual semiconductor conference that started Friday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Other speakers at the flagship event include Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.
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The chip convention is part of the Modi government’s efforts to court investments into India’s nascent chip sector and establish the country as a chipmaking hub.
In 2021, the country unveiled a $10 billion incentive programme for the chip sector, but the plan has floundered so far as no company has managed to get clearance for setting up a fabrication plant yet. A foreign chip fab in the countryis the centerpiece to Modi’s ambitions.
India’s technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar welcomed AMD’s decision, saying the investment will “play an important role in building a world class semiconductor design and innovation ecosystem.
I welcome @AMD‘s decision to set up its largest R&D #design center in #NewIndia and expansion of the India-AMD partnership. It will certainly play an important role in building a world class #semiconductor design and #innovation ecosystem. It will also provide tremendous… pic.twitter.com/J3STagMh9I
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) July 28, 2023
Other investments in India include a multi-year $400 million plan by US chip equipment maker Applied Materials in June to set up an engineering centre, and chipmaker Micron’s $825 million investment in a semiconductor testing and packaging unit in Gujarat.
Expanding India footprint
AMD said it will open its new design centre campus in the tech hub of Bengaluru by end of this year and create 3,000 new engineering roles within five years.
The new 500,000-square-foot (55,555 square yards) campus will increase AMD’s office footprint in India to 10 locations. It already has more than 6,500 employees in the country.
From personal computers to data centres, AMD chips are used in a wide range of devices. The Santa Clara, California-based firm is also working on an artificial intelligence chip that will take on market leader Nvidia.
Unlike its top rival Intel, AMD outsources production of chips it designs to third-party manufacturers like Taiwan’s TSMC.
TSMC and the South Korea’s Samsung are among the elite few chipmakers globally to have mastered cutting-edge chipmaking, a technology many nations are now vying for to avoid supply chain shocks, such as faced during the pandemic.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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