Around 30% of the new global capability centers (GCCs) established in India in the last quarter of last year were in the semiconductor sector, indicating a growing interest in utilizing the local talent pool in various areas such as front-end design, performance testing, and post-silicon validation, as per a Nasscom-Zinnov report.
One of the recent additions to the semiconductor sector is Signature IP, a company founded in 2021 with a focus on advancing network-on-chip (NoC) technology. EdgeCortix designs AI-specific processor architecture from scratch, and M31 Technology Corporation is a silicon IP provider engaged in IP development, IC design, and electronic design automation, including memory compilers and standard cell library solutions, with a center in Bengaluru.
The Nasscom-Zinnov report indicates that the global semiconductor talent pool amounts to 2.3 million, with the US, China, and India collectively comprising half of this talent pool. Bengaluru and Hyderabad host about two-thirds of the semiconductor global capability centers (GCCs) in India, accommodating over two-thirds of the total 55 semiconductor GCCs. With over 95 GCC units and a specialized workforce of 50,000, this underscores India's commitment to the semiconductor industry.
Key roles across the semiconductor value chain include ASIC design engineer, reliability test engineer, clean room technician, chip encapsulation specialist, PCB (printed circuit board) design engineer, RF test engineer, and thin film engineer.
The Nasscom-Zinnov report also highlighted that the GCCs are transforming their India centers into hubs for transformation, working on the designing and development of chips, while outsourcing fabrication to specialized foundries. Micron's India center has developed a 1 TB 232-Layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory chip for diverse applications in business, consumer, and gaming, aligning with a $2.7 billion investment for its semiconductor chip assembly and test facility in Sanand.
Globally renowned chip design companies, such as Intel, Texas Instruments, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, have design and R&D centers in India. Moreover, AMD recently inaugurated its largest global design center in Bengaluru, with plans to hire approximately 3,000 engineers in the coming years. The AMD Technostar campus is part of the company's $400 million investment in India over the next five years and will serve as a center of excellence across high-performance CPUs, data center and gaming GPUs, and adaptive SoCs and FPGAs for embedded devices.
