India can Provide Global Talent in Chip Manufacturing If It Gets Them Skilled: AMD India Country Head

India has a lot of raw talent in semiconductor manufacturing that needs to be skilled and once that is done, the country has the potential to supply that to the world as well, said Jaya Jagadish, country head and senior vice president of AMD India, on Friday.

She was speaking at the Convergence India Expo in New Delhi.

“There's a lot of work being done to convert the raw talent in India to skilled labor. Once we do that, I truly believe that we have the capacity to supply talent to the world, not just India,” she said.

When India started its journey in semiconductor R&D, the problem was of the skill gap and not the headcount, she said.

“We did not have relevant talent… Not just AMD, almost every major company that invested in India maybe twenty years ago had to do this (skill the workforce),”she said.

The company had to change its hiring strategy. Instead to looking for skilled talent, it focused on aptitude and learning capacity, she said.

“But that actually worked. And today, the talent (in chip R&D) is out there. It's extremely skilled. We have come a very long way. And in fact, AMD India's position is so central to AMD. For almost every product, we have significant contributions from the India team, whether it's IP development or whether it's system on chip or software,” she said.

She cautioned that India’s journey to become a hub of semiconductor manufacturing is not going to be easy as was the case in chip designing.

"But what I want to emphasize is the pace of progress that has happened. Due to the conduciveness of the government policies, ease of doing business and also the vibrant talent pool, we've seen a lot of investments coming into the country,” she said.

India has a good grasp in semiconductor designing as companies have been investing in the sector for almost four decades, Jagadish said.

“(In chip designing) almost every major semiconductor company worldwide has investments in India. In manufacturing, we are little behind because we started late,” she said, while emphasizing the need for skilling.

India has about 19% of the world’s chip designers but the country accounts for only 7% of chip design facilities, according to a 2024 report by consulting firm BCG.

The US is the leader in the segment with 32% of the world’s chip designers and 27% of design facilities. In comparison, the figures for China are 28% and 12%, respectively.