Bengaluru gets AMD's new global design centre, to accommodate 3K engineers

India's semiconductor market is expected to touch $64 billion by 2026, almost three times its size of $22.7 billion in 2019, according to Counterpoint Research and IESA

Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Tuesday opened its largest global design centre in Bengaluru, marking a milestone in the company's commitment to expanding research, development, and engineering operations in India.

The 500,000 sq. ft. campus plans to host about 3,000 engineers in the coming years, focused on the design and development of semiconductor technology including 3D stacking, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).

The centre is part of the company's $400 million investment outlay it had announced in July this year at Semicon India 2023. “The campus will serve as a centre of excellence for the development of leadership products across high-performance CPUs for the data centre and PCs, data centre and gaming GPUs, and adaptive SoCs (System on Chip) and FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Array) for embedded devices,” AMD said in a statement.

The new design centre will help “propel technology and product development across the AMD portfolio, fuelling the next generation of high performance, adaptive and AI computing solutions for our customers around the world,” said Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, AMD.

“India's semiconductor programme launched under the leadership of Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays strong emphasis on supporting the design and talent ecosystem for semiconductors. AMD setting up its largest design centre in Bengaluru is a testament to the confidence global companies have in India,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

The India design centre started with a handful of employees in 2004. Today, 25 per cent of AMD’s global workforce is located in India, supporting the development of key AMD products for data centre, gaming, PC, and embedded customers. “This new facility marks the next milestone in our growth journey to be a significant contributor in the advancement of semiconductors,” said Jaya Jagadish, India Country Head, AMD.

India's semiconductor market is expected to touch $64 billion by 2026, almost three times its size of $22.7 billion in 2019, according to Counterpoint Research and the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA). The manufacturing of semiconductor chips in India will be driven by domestic and export markets with significant demand from the consumer electronics, telecom, IT hardware, and industrial sectors.

Other players in the semiconductor industry too are expanding their operations in India. In September, Micron Technology commenced construction of the first phase of a $2.75 billion semiconductor testing and packaging plant in Sanad, Gujarat. Similarly, Applied Materials said in June this year that it will invest $400 million over four years in a new engineering centre in India.