NXP Semiconductors invests over $1 billion in India to boost R&D efforts
NXP Semiconductors will invest more than $1 billion (about Rs 8,398 crore) in India, doubling its research and development efforts, the Dutch company’s CEO said on Wednesday, joining international names betting on the country to gain a foothold in the sector.
“NXP plans to double its R&D efforts in the country in the coming years, which is well over a billion dollars,” CEO Kurt Sievers said at the Semicon India conference near New Delhi.
He said the company is in talks with the automotive and other industries in the country, where it has four semiconductor design centers with about 3,000 employees.
While chipmaking is still in its infancy in India, it is a crucial part of the economic strategy, with a $10 billion (approximately Rs. 83,985 crore) stimulus package allocated to support efforts to compete with global chipmaking powerhouses such as Taiwan. India expects its semiconductor market to be worth $63 billion (approximately Rs. 5,29,102 crore) by 2026.
Major players such as Nvidia and AMD have established major research and design centres in the country, underscoring the country’s growing importance in the global ecosystem as it seeks to reduce its dependence on hubs such as China and Taiwan.
“India’s contribution of about 20 percent of chip design talent to the industry is growing and we are preparing a semiconductor workforce of 85,000 technicians, engineers and R&D experts,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the event.
In February, India gave the green light to build three semiconductor factories worth 1.26 trillion rupees (15 billion dollars) by companies including Tata Group and CG Power, in a bid to turn the country into an electronics giant.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra had said last year that the US memory chip maker’s planned $2.7 billion (around Rs 22,677 crore) testing and packaging unit in Gujarat would create around 5,000 jobs in the state.
Chip equipment supplier Applied Materials announced in June last year that it would invest $400 million (approximately Rs 3,359 crore) in a new engineering centre in India over four years.
NXP reported its biggest quarterly revenue decline in four years in July and forecast third-quarter revenue that would come in below expectations, fueling concerns about demand for auto chips.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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