Semiconductor design firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiled its largest global design centre in Bengaluru on November 28, a move that is expected to boost India's ambitions to become a semiconductor manufacturing hub.

This centre, named AMD Technostar, spans an area of 500,000 square feet and is situated in Brookefield area in East Bengaluru. The campus is set to house around 3,000 engineers dedicated to the design and development of semiconductor technology, including 3D stacking, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, among other areas.

The centre is part of the company's $400 million investment plan over the next five years to expand its research, development, and engineering operations in India. AMD initially announced this investment at Semicon India 2023 in July 2023, along with plans to hire around 3,000 engineers by the end of 2028.

The facility was inaugurated by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for Railways, Telecommunications, Electronics, and Information Technology, along with AMD executive leaders, including Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer; David Wang, Senior Vice President of GPU Technologies and Engineering; Brian Amick, Senior Vice President of Central Engineering; and Andrej Zdravkovic, Chief Software Officer and Senior Vice President of GPU Technologies.

“India's semiconductor program 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,” Vaishnaw said in a statement.

The Santa Clara-headquartered company, which started operations in India with a handful of employees in 2001, has since expanded its workforce to over 7,000 employees, constituting 25 percent of AMD's global workforce. With the new Bengaluru facility, AMD has expanded its office footprint to 10 locations across India, including Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

AMD said that the campus will serve as a centre of excellence for developing products across high-performance CPUs for data centres and PCs, data centre and gaming GPUs, and adaptive system on chip (SoCs) and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for embedded devices.

AMD CTO Papermaster said this investment showcases the company’s confidence in the engineering talent that the country has to offer.

“This new design centre will help propel technology and product development across the AMD portfolio, fueling the next generation of high performance, adaptive and AI computing solutions for our customers around the world,” he said.

The space features modern R&D labs spanning over 60,000 square feet and a large demo centre where visitors can experience AMD's products and solutions. AMD's India head Jaya Jagdish said that the Indian workforce plays a pivotal role in the development of AMD's products for data centre, gaming, PC, and embedded customers worldwide.

This development comes at a time when India is trying to attract major semiconductor players to set up chip fabrication and assembling plants in the country with a $10 billion subsidy programme.

In September, semiconductor giant Micron held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Sanand industrial area of Gujarat to mark the commencement of construction on the first phase of a $2.75 billion semiconductor testing and packaging plant.

Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials also said it would invest $400 million to design chipmaking machinery in the country in June 2023.

By VIKAS SN