US chipmaker AMD to invest $400 million in India in next five years

US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which specialises in graphics and high-performance computing, announced on Friday that it would invest $400 million in India over the next five years, and would build its largest design centre in Bengaluru.

The design centre, with large lab space and high-end collaboration tools and configurations, is expected to open by the end of this year, the company said, adding that the facility will initially have about 1,000 employees. Additionally, the company will hire 3,000 engineers to grow its presence in India by 2028.

The new centre, which will have an office area of about 500,000 square feet, will expand AMD’s office footprint in India to 10 locations. 

The announcement came on the first day of the three-day SemiconIndia 2023 global summit, which aims to showcase India as a favoured destination for semiconductor development.

AMD said the new investment was supported by various semiconductor policy initiatives of the Indian government.

“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, chief technology officer of AMD, said.

AMD’s announcement came on the heels of its move to expand its portfolio in computing products for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Last month, the firm announced MI300X, a new AI chip targeting the AI accelerator market currently dominated by NVIDIA. The company expects the data centre AI accelerator market to grow from around $30 billion now to over $150 billion in 2027 with a compound annual growth rate of 50 per cent.

Papermaster said AMD’s India team played a key role in every activity of the company. “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,” he said. 

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics & IT, welcomed AMD’s decision to set up its largest R&D design centre in India. “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," he said.

AMD joins the long list of chip firms coming to India. Applied Materials, Micron, Foxconn are some of the major players that have announced plans to set up their manufacturing hubs in the country.