Applied Materials bets on India as critical hub for R&D, innovation push

Avi Avula says India can lead global innovation by linking chip design, prototyping and manufacturing, as applied materials deepens R&D investment and ecosystem partnerships

Avi Avula, president of Applied Materials India, is betting on India as a critical research & development (R&D) hub. He said that every product the company makes is designed in India, and believes that the country will serve as a global centre for innovation and the creation of intellectual property.

 

“We focus on R&D because once we develop the product and the IP is created, that is what we call ‘invent in India’. This means creating the IP to solve that very difficult problem first. For us, manufacturing is the easier part,” said Avula, as he emphasised the need for R&D.

 

He was speaking to Business Standard on the occasion of the completion of a 20-year association in the semiconductor space with IIT Bombay.

 

Avula shared that the focus is to do R&D design products and build them here, the first prototypes and then manufacture. 

 

When asked about a recent comment by Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw expressing disappointment over companies not setting up in-house design capabilities in India, Avula said, “I think, where I connect (with) his comments, is that though 20 per cent of chip design is done in India... but they're all captives for some US company... there’s no company with that capability built here,” he said pointing to the gap in the stages leading from design to production. 

 

Avula added that the progress we’re seeing in areas like advanced packaging, OSATs (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test), and equipment engagement is encouraging, supported by sustained government focus, policy direction, and ecosystem investment. “The next phase for India is not choosing between design or manufacturing, but connecting them (Make + Invent) —building the middle that allows India to design, make, and continuously invent at scale for the country and for global markets,” he said.

 

Applied Materials also operates a 300-millimetre (mm) wafer lab in India —currently unique in the country — and is already building products for global markets, though at a limited scale. The US-based semiconductor equipment major has already announced a $400 million investment in an R&D centre in India, which it expects could catalyse up to $2 billion in additional investments from ecosystem partners. The company is also working with global and local suppliers to gradually build capabilities around this base.

 

One of the foundations of this focus on R&D in India has been the collaboration the company has done with premier education institutes. Especially the two-decade partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay. 

 

Om Nalamasu, CTO, Applied Materials said that the collaboration, which began in 2006, was done with a goal of establishing a semiconductor foundation ecosystem in India. This was done alongside the government-backed Centre for Excellence in Nanoelectronics, that has focused on building semiconductor R&D infrastructure, talent, and early ecosystem capabilities in India. 

 

“We built the country’s first 200-mm academic fabrication facilities in India. It is one of the three or four at any university in the world. About 400 institutions have used the facility to do R&D. Between us and IIT-Bombay we have worked on some 140 projects and hired many students and interns,” he added. 

 

Professor Swaroop Ganguly head of the Semiconductor Centre at IIT-Bombay said that the collaboration with Applied Materials is one of the rare milestones in an academia-industry tie-up to have survived 20-year association and that has real milestones achieved. 

 

“The research that has happened between Applied Materials and IIT-B has gone to top conference, these have been showcased to Applied Materials customers, and finally there is research that has impacted Applied Materials products,” he added. 

 

A key bottleneck, according to Avula, for this industry is the lack of experienced talent. “The raw talent... has always been there... it’s the experienced talent in this space that’s not necessarily there,” he said, adding that companies are increasingly looking to attract global Indian professionals to return and build capabilities locally.