Bill Gates once said if Microsoft was rid of 20 of its best talents, it would be only a company of mediocrity. Which countries would be able to recruit 20 top-notch experts who could help develop their home-grown semiconductor industries? The US and Japan had a head start, while Taiwan and Korea were presented with the opportunities at some critical moments in history. Who would be the next pretender to the pinnacle of the semiconductor industry?
Friends of mine from Silicon Valley's semiconductor equipment sector have noted that Randhir Thakur has resigned as president of Intel Foundry Services (IFS) and returned to India. The India-born Thakur used to be vested with the responsibility of competing with TSMC and Samsung in the foundry sector. He had also worked for Applied Materials. Now that he has returned to India, he could play a leading role in driving India's semiconductor industry.
Many people still think that infrastructure is lacking in India and the caste system is still a problem there. But I would always ask these people how long it has been since they last visited India. Look at how India, with a huge industry of software development services, has managed to reap enormous profits during the COVID-ravaged years, and you'll understand that you need to take a fresh look at the country's competitiveness.
In March, I attended the Asia Economic Dialog forum in Pune, India as a guest speaker. During my stay in India at the time, I got to see significant changes in some of the important cities. Traffic jams and homeless people were no longer common sights. Among the other speakers at the forum were many leaders in the tech industry and high-level government officials. We talked about investing in India and the feasibility of building a semiconductor industry in the country. I don't have specific information of India's roadmap for the development of its semiconductor industry, but the impression that I got at the forum was that it was raring to go, and that specific plans would be announced soon.
In terms of talent supply and national resources, China stands a good chance of becoming a global powerhouse in the semiconductor industry, and so does India. In April 2023, India officially overtook China as the world's most populous country. China responded by saying that it still has a huge quality. But China does face serious challenges in the IC design sector.
According to DIGITIMES' study, Taiwan has a global market share of 18% in IC design, and its IC design houses employ a total of 47,000 engineers. India does not have a home-grown IC design industry, but many foreign companies, such as Qualcomm, Toshiba, Samsung and MediaTek, maintain big R&D teams of their own in India. These foreign companies employ as many as 56,000 IC design engineers in India. Once India has established its home-grown IC design industry, it will be a strong competitor of China in IC design.
China had seemed unstoppable until it fell out with the US. India, who could act as a counterbalance in the US-China tensions, surely is eyeing the opportunities. Wistron and Foxconn have teamed up with local companies in India. And when multinational electronics and semiconductor firms establish a strong manufacturing foothold in India and connect with the ecosystems supporting local IC design houses, Taiwanese components distributors can't afford to miss out on the opportunities.
The present India is much different from the one we saw 10 years ago. Will we be able to share the business opportunities that India will be creating 10 years from now?
