Microchip Technology to invest $300 million to expand India operations

For starts, opens R&D unit in Hyderabad on 168,000 sq ft with capacity to house 1,000 employees

Global major in microcontroller solutions, Microchip Technology Inc on Monday opened a new research and development (R&D) facility in Hyderabad and also announced an investment of $300 million for the next few years to expand its operations in India.

The investment will include new engineering labs, talent acquisition and support for regional technology consortia and educational institutions, the company said. It will also improve the company’s existing facilities which include R&D centres in Bengaluru and Chennai, and sales offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and New Delhi.

The new development centre of Hyderabad is located in the Kokapet business district across 168,000 square feet and can house 1,000 employees.

“Microchip is making a significant strategic commitment to growing our operations in India, whose meteoric growth has established it as one of the top sources of business and technical resources in our sector. Our investments here will enable us to both benefits from and contribute to the country’s increasingly important role in the global semiconductor industry,” said Ganesh Moorthy, President and CEO of Microchip.

Microchip has become the latest American tech firm to expand its presence in India. The announcement comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, where major semiconductor companies Micron Technology, Applied Materials and Lam Research committed to investing in India’s emerging semiconductor industry.

The Chandler, Arizona-based company is among the largest companies providing microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog semiconductors and flash-IP solutions. In India, the company serves some 2000 customers from data centre and computing, automotive, consumer appliances, aerospace, defence and industrial sectors.

Microchip’s new investment is expected to accelerate hiring across its centres in the country. Currently, the high-tech firm has a workforce of 2500 in three centres in India out of which some 500 will operate from the new centre in Hyderabad. A majority of the team works on R&D and new product development.

Moorthy added that India contributed to a substantial amount of design activities and had a large impact on Microchip’s operations. The company’s Indian centres support the business units for 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), 32-bit microprocessors (MPUs), networking and data centre solutions, and other product development.

“Microchip’s investments in India over nearly two and a half decades have augmented its headcount growth, resulting in building a centre of excellence for engineering deliverables and solutions for Microchip’s global success. We look forward to celebrating Microchip’s continued progress in India as it embarks on this impressive growth campaign,” said Krishna Moorthy, President and CEO of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).

IESA and Counterpoint Research recently reported that India's semiconductor market is expected to reach $64 billion by 2026, nearly tripling from its 2019 size of $22.7 billion. India accounts for around 20 per cent of the total global semiconductor design workforce.

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