AMD plans to invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and set up its largest design center in the country’s southern city of Bengaluru as the chipmaker joins the growing list of firms that are backing the South Asian nation’s ambition of becoming a semiconductor manufacturing hub.
AMD CTO Mark Papermaster announced the chipmaker’s investment plans on Friday at the annual semiconductor conference SemiconIndia 2023 in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
“Our investment will build on over two decades of growth and successful presence here in India,” said Papermaster in his keynote.
AMD will expand its footprint in India with the opening of its new design center in Bengaluru by the end of this year. Covering an area of 500,000 square feet, this new facility will bring the total number of AMD offices in India to 10, including locations in Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
“Through these investments, AMD will further expand our R&D capabilities in India to be able to drive our semiconductor design innovation in support of the government’s India semiconductor mission and drive to make India a strong semiconductor talent and nation,” he added.
The Santa Clara-headquartered company, which started its operations in the South Asian nation 22 years ago in 2001, has more than 6,500 employees, as well as 3,000 partners and contractors in the country. The chipmaker is expected to expand its workforce in the country with 3,000 additional engineers by the end of 2028.
“We welcome the AMD plan to expand its leading-edge R&D engineering operations in India,” said Indian electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Other industry executives, including Foxconn Chairman Young Liu, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and Applied Materials semiconductor products group president Prabu Raja, are also in attendance at the conference.
India is looking to become the next big hub for semiconductors globally. In 2021, the Narendra Modi-led government announced a $10 billion incentive program to attract chipmakers to set up local facilities in the country. However, the government had to tweak the scheme in June as the original version did not receive the expected response from global companies.
In June, semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials announced a $400 million investment to set up its engineering center in India. Computer memory and data storage maker Micron also unveiled a plan to invest up to $825 million last month to build a semiconductor plant in the country.
“I welcome AMD’s decision to set up its largest R&D design center in India 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 opportunities for our large pool of highly skilled semiconductor engineers and researchers and will catalyze PM Narendra Modi’s vision of India becoming a global talent hub,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and IT, skill development and entrepreneurship.
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