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Top European chipmaker Infineon is racing to hire more skilled workers in south and south-east Asia as the regions become increasingly important to the world’s semiconductor and tech supply chains.
Infineon’s Asia-Pacific president and managing director, Chua Chee Seong, told Nikkei Asia that the company is recruiting more staff in India, which is already the German chipmaker’s crucial Asian research and development base, and that it also aims to significantly expand the workforce at its new Vietnam office to “multiple hundreds” of engineers.
“I think south-east Asia and south Asia’s importance in terms of chip talent and the chip supply chain will only increase in the coming years,” Chua said. “The region is relatively neutral in the dynamic geopolitical environment, while it is also an ideal location for efficient operations.”
Chua said India’s significance is rapidly increasing. In addition to being a valuable source of skilled workers — the company already employs 2,000 chip designers and software developers there — the country is becoming a crucial end market for chips used in automobiles and electronics.
“We see growing competition for talent-hunting in India as investments are piling in, and thus we have to look for new locations inside India to open an office,” Chua said.
This article is from Nikkei Asia, a global publication with a uniquely Asian perspective on politics, the economy, business and international affairs. Our own correspondents and outside commentators from around the world share their views on Asia, while our Asia300 section provides in-depth coverage of 300 of the biggest and fastest-growing listed companies from 11 economies outside Japan.
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A rising India looks very similar to China of two to three decades ago, according to Chua. “At this early stage, we’re seeing western companies making initial investments, paving the way for the emergence of local suppliers and brands in the future.”
He identified the automobile and motorcycle industries as particularly promising, highlighting India’s potential to replicate China’s current market size of 20mn to 30mn cars. “With only 4mn cars currently, India has immense room for growth,” he said. India’s 20mn-strong motorcycle market also presents a massive growth opportunity for chips for electric two-wheelers and battery technology, Chua said.
The war for chip talent has been heating up in south-east Asia and India as chipmakers and other tech companies increase their regional presence, driven by a desire to diversify supply chains beyond China and build more resilience.
India has attracted big players, including Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, Applied Materials and Micron, who are setting up R&D centres and even production facilities there, while Apple’s top suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron are increasing production of iPhones in India.
Vietnam, meanwhile, is emerging as a crucial hub for chip developers, with top American chip design software maker Synopsys establishing a 600-person R&D team there. Leading US chip developers Nvidia and Marvell are also expanding their engineering teams in the country. Malaysia and Singapore have also benefited from the massive supply chain shift as foreign investments pile in, Nikkei reported earlier.
Vincent Chang, managing director of Asia and the intercontinental region at Advantech, the world’s biggest industrial computer maker, told Nikkei Asia that the company’s revenue in south-east Asia has doubled since 2015, and he expects the region will only become more important.
“We surveyed the south-east Asia region and found that Malaysia is currently very ideal for expanding to do system integration work for the whole region’s businesses. We are here because of high-quality engineers rather than cheap labour,” Chang said. “We find our big customers are also either adding headcounts here or starting to do some site surveys here.”
Chang also agreed that India has huge potential, with his company’s customers also stepping up efforts to invest there. Advantech launched a software R&D centre in Pune last October and aims to hire hundreds of software engineers.
Infineon’s Chua added that Singapore plays a very prominent role in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in procurement, operations and logistics. “All the wafers from our contract manufacturers, such as TSMC, will come to Singapore first and later dispatch to other chip packaging and assembly houses.”
Singapore also has good engineering talent, according to Chua. “But the problem is these great talents don’t want to work in chip and manufacturing industries. They are going to work for the successful financial sector,” he said.
Acknowledging its limitations in terms of land and workers, Singapore launched the “Singapore Plus One” strategy in 2021, but is still aiming to stay relevant amid the big supply chain shifts. Offering subsidies, the strategy offers incentives to investors to set up regional headquarters or innovation centres in Singapore, while they can build production facilities in neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
“Singapore’s [land] will not grow bigger over time,” Wee Seng Ang, the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association’s executive director, told Nikkei Asia. “In order to grow the industry, we recognise developing and enlarging the talent pool is the most important task.”
A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia on January 26. ©2024 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved.
