Mediatek investment in India driven by quality talent, not geopolitics: Company COO

Taipei (Taiwan), May 21 (PTI) Fabless semiconductor company Mediatek's investments in India are driven by the availability of quality talent and not geopolitics, one of the senior officials from the company global leadership team said on Wednesday.

Mediatek Co-COO Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Ku said it will take time for India to produce or assemble chips for the company as the talent available for hardware work is relatively low in the country while it leads on the software front.

He said Mediatek has been building a global centre in India.

"India right now has 1,200 people (employees). That actually takes time to build. We built it way before the geopolitical (issues) came up. The incentive or the driver for us to have a global team (is that) we are still short of talents and India has very good talents.

"We are definitely trying to beef up the global resource but the driver is probably not going to be geopolitical. The driver will be the talent," Ku told reporters here.

He was responding to questions on plans and views of Mediatek in engagement with India and impact of current geopolitical situation on it.

Citing an example of the US-China tariff deal, Ku said geopolitical relations may change but getting the right talent lays the foundation of a global operation, regardless of geopolitical issues.

He said India is a big market for the company and Mediatek will continue to invest in the country for research and development as well as enhance marketing efforts.

Asked about India becoming part of its supply chain for semiconductor chips, Ku said it is a complicated process.

"In the supply chain we talk about the foundry, the packaging. I think for that one it will probably still take some time for India," he said.

Mediatek does not have its own plant but has a long-term strategic partnership with semiconductor manufacturer TSMC that makes all its chips.

Ku said TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is investing in Arizona for manufacturing chips which may normally take four years to start mass production.

"Assuming US actually got a lot of workforce in this (chip production) industry... but for India people working in the semiconductor factory industry is still relatively low. I assume it will probably take sometime longer but on the software side I think India probably is on the front end," Ku said.

Mediatek is the market leader across various consumer device segments, including smartphones, television, wifi routers, etc.

The company has announced rolling out of the world smallest chip of 2 nanometer size from September onwards.

Ku said the chip will be initially used for smartphones and for other devices thereafter. PTI PRS TRB