Cypress to up headcount, outsourcing

The $1 billion Cypress Semiconductor will hike its headcount in India to 320 from the current 160 at its two design centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The company, which provides high-performance integrated circuit solutions for personal, network access, enterprise and core communications-system applications, is also expected to increase the software development work outsourced Wipro.

Outlining the company's plans for India, Cypress Semiconductor founder president & CEO T J Rodgers said: "Cypress India has proven its value to the corporation again and again, taking advantage of the phenomenal pool of engineering talent in the sub-continent. Our teams here continuously showcase their ability to define, design, debug and deploy products successfully. Approximately 25 per cent of Cypress development is done out of India and this will invariably increase."

He further added that he will meet Wipro president on Tuesday and will look at options to increase the work being outsourced to them. "Wipro is a great software company and we will work out details on expanding our relationship with them," Rodgers said.

During the past nine years, the company has invested $20 million in India and is expected to add another $5 million over the next one year.

Rodgers also said Cypress is also looking at acquiring those Indian firms who have expertise in the back-end of chip design.

During 2003, Cypress India had sales revenues of $2.3 million, mostly in the defence sector, and is expected to clock in similar numbers during the current year.

Based on a recent assessment from the Semiconductor Industry Association that semiconductor consumption is forecast to continue a migration from the Americas to Asia-Pacific, Cypress India is increasingly turning towards Asia-Pacific markets to fuel its growth.

According to a Gartner forecast on the semiconductor industry, recovery will be broad based across all markets and is expected to grow to $194.6 billion in 2004 from $163 billion in 2003.

Cypress, which also operates on the solar-cells segments through its subsidiary Sunpower, is currently evaluating options to put up a greenfield project for solar-cells in India.