Qualcomm says India is important market for chip design as Modi pushes for chip development | Wilnesh News

Qualcomm Qualcomm India already designs chips in India as it taps into the country’s pool of talented engineers, Qualcomm India president said in an exclusive interview.

“We actually have chips that are completely designed end-to-end in India and we are shipping those chips around the world,” Qualcomm India president Savi Soin told CNBC.

The U.S. chip giant designs semiconductor and wireless telecommunications products. Qualcomm is best known for its Snapdragon processors, which power some of the world’s top Android smartphones.

Like any chip designer, Qualcomm doesn’t make its own chips.On the contrary, it Dependent on chip manufacturers For example British SemiconductorSamsung Electronics and GlobalFoundries.

“We now have more engineers in India than anywhere else in the world,” Soin said. “We have a lot of engineers here doing end-to-end wafer design.”

The wafer design process is “highly complex” as it requires “years of research and development, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and thousands of engineers.” Semiconductor Industry Association in a report.

Wafer design is an integral part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, defining the chip architecture and system requirements, as well as how individual circuits are laid out on the wafer.

Qualcomm said in January it was expanding its Chennai operations with a new design center focused on wireless technology.

The investment of 1.77 billion rupees ($21.3 million) will also support Qualcomm’s commitment to the Indian government’s “Make in India” and “Design in India” vision.

“Twenty years ago, we saw India as a center of R&D excellence and a lot of talent. We saw India as a huge market, a huge opportunity,” Soin told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah.

“We are now in discussions with a lot of the semiconductor backend and manufacturing that India is trying to set up. Our CEO promised two years ago that if India sets up semiconductor manufacturing, we will actually help increase production,” Soin said.

India’s semiconductor ambitions take huge strides with approval from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government three semiconductor factories Investments in Gujarat and Assam exceed $15 billion.

A government statement on February 29 said: “India already has deep capabilities in chip design. Through these units, our country will develop chip manufacturing capabilities. Advanced packaging technology will be developed indigenously in India.”

India hopes to become a major chip hub competing with the United States, Taiwan and South Korea and has been luring foreign chipmakers to set up operations in the country. Countries such as India stand to benefit as global chipmakers seek to diversify their businesses amid geopolitical uncertainty.

To boost domestic manufacturing capabilities and exports, India announces worth billions of dollars Production-linked incentives “Attract investments” in key areas and cutting-edge technologies and make India “an integral part of global value chains”.

India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw told CNBC in March this year that India aims to become one of the top five semiconductor manufacturers in the world within the next five years.

“What we’re seeing is that — for example, the benefits of PLI — it’s really bringing more and more smartphone manufacturing to India,” Soin said.

“So we’re seeing good incentives for IT, telecom and telecom equipment that’s made here. We’re seeing some discussion around design elements. So we’re hoping that more and more things will be included in products that use our technology. Certain elements can be recognized.

apple It is one of the companies that has diversified some of its manufacturing operations into India amid geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. According to an Indian company, Apple currently assembles about 14% of iPhones in India, which is twice the amount produced in India last year. Bloomberg reports.

Google plans to start producing Pixel smartphones in India in the second quarter Nikkei Asia report February.