NXP Semiconductors will invest as much as $1 billion in the Indian market in a bid to double down on its research and development capabilities, joining a growing base of global chipmakers who are betting on the country to set up design and capability centres.
“NXP is committed to double its R&D efforts here in the country in the next few years, which is far in excess of a billion dollars,” Kurt Sievers, CEO of NXP Semiconductors said at the Semicon India 2024 event.
He said the company is in talks with the automotive sector and other industries in the country, where it has four semiconductor design centres, with about 3,000 employees.
NXP follows in the footsteps of major chipmaking companies, who, even though have shied away from investing in the manufacturing ecosystem in India, have opened research and design centres in the country. This includes companies like AMD, which last year opened its largest global design centre in Bengaluru and Qualcomm, which opened a facility in Chennai.
India is home to a large number of chip design engineers, as it has served as a backoffice for global chip companies for several years now. There are an estimated 300,000 design engineers in the country, accounting for around 20 per cent of the global workforce in the sector.
These centres outline the growing importance of India in the chip economy and value chain, as companies around the world look to diversify from places like China and Taiwan.
India has ambitions to become a major chip hub on the lines of the United States, Taiwan and South Korea, and has been courting foreign companies to set up operations in the country.
So far, it has approved five chip units, four of which are in Gujarat and one in Assam. This includes a fabrication plant being set up by the Tata Group and Taiwan’s Powerchip, and four assembly and testing plants by US-based Micron Technology, the Tatas, Murugappa Group’s CG Power in partnership with Japan’s Renesas, and Kaynes Semicon.
