NXP Semiconductors to invest over $1 billion in India, doubling its R&D effort, says CEO Kurt Sievers

NXP Semiconductors will invest over $1 billion in India, doubling its research and development efforts

NXP Semiconductors will invest over $1 billion in India, doubling its research and development efforts, the company's CEO Kurt Sievers said at the Semicon India conference in Greater Noida on September 11.

"NXP is committed to double its R&D efforts here in the country in the next few years, which is far in excess of a billion dollars," Kurt Sievers said, adding the Dutch company is in talks with the automotive sector and other industries in India.

NXP has four semiconductor design centres in India and about 3,000 employees. At the local R&D centres, artificial intelligence (AI) is one of its key focus areas for getting into more advanced systems for automotive and other applications.

The company has said that it intends to apply for the design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme once government opens it up for multi-national companies. The DLI scheme is currently limited to startups, with only seven approved to claim incentives. India is currently evaluating the proposal to include large multi-nationals in its $200 million DLI scheme, provided they design chips in India.

Major players like Nvidia, Qualcomm, AMD, Intel and MediaTek too have established substantial research and design centers in India.

"India's contribution of about 20% of chip designing talent to the industry is growing and we are preparing an 85,000-strong semiconductor workforce of technicians, engineers and R&D experts," Prime Minister Modi said at the Semicon India event.

NXP is also collaborating closely with India's startup ecosystem and actively seeks out companies to support in their growth phase.

In February, India gave the go-ahead to construct three semiconductor plants worth Rs 1.26 lakh crore ($15 billion) to companies like Tata Group and CG Power, in pursuit of becoming an electronics powerhouse.