American chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced that it will invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and will build its largest design centre in the tech hub of Bengaluru. AMD’s Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster made the announcement at Semicon India 2023 in Gandhinagar, which was inaugurated today by PM Narendra Modi.
AMD added that it will open its new design centre campus in Bengaluru by the end of this year and create 3,000 new engineering roles within 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.
The new campus in Bengaluru will spread over a 500,000-square-foot area, which will increase AMD units in India to ten. The company already has over 6,500 employees in India. The new AMD campus is expected to open before the end of 2023 and will feature lab space, collaboration tools and seating areas for teamwork.
Semicon India 2023. @AMD announces $400 m investment in India. Mark Papermaster, Exec VP tells @Shilparanipeta that India will be at the centre of their global growth blueprint. pic.twitter.com/l6SCUEaSRS
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) July 28, 2023
Papermaster further added that the company will have its largest R&D centre in Bengaluru following the expansion. He said that India will be at the centre of future activities of the company like its foray into AI. He said that the expertise needed for the semiconductor is already strong in India, and with the incentives given by the Modi government, the industry will grow in the country.
“From a handful of employees in 2001 to more than 6,500 employees today, AMD has grown its India footprint based on the strong foundation established by our local leadership and the highly skilled talent pool,” Mark Papermaster said.
He added, “AMD has one of the industry’s broadest product portfolios fueled by growth in artificial intelligence, networking and 6G communications, and our India teams will continue to play a pivotal role in delivering the high-performance and adaptive solutions that support AMD customers worldwide. By further investing and expanding our presence in Bangalore, we are committed to driving innovation in India to support the India Semiconductor Mission.”
AMD is a major chip maker, a rival of Intel, and makes chips for various devices like personal computers, super computers, servers, data centres, gaming consoles etc. However, unlike Intel, AMD outsources the actual manufacturing of the microchips to third-party manufacturers like Taiwan’s TSMC, while the company designs the chips.
Govt of India welcomed the announcement by “We welcome the AMD plan to expand its leading-edge R&D engineering operations in India,” said Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Cabinet Minister for Railways, Telecommunications, Electronics and Information Technology.
Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said, “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 catalyse PM Narendra Modi’s vision of India becoming a global talent hub.”
