KLA Corp expands India presence for semiconductor-based R&D

KLA Corporation, a solutions provider for the global semiconductor and chips industry, is increasingly expanding its presence in India and has now opened two new facilities in Chennai to boost its research and talent development.

The first of such facility is an Artificial Intelligence-Advanced Computing Lab (AI-ACL) opened in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras (IIT-M) to serve as a centre of excellence for AI-based research and development, the company said in a statement. 

In addition, the company has opened a new office space at RMZ Millenia-II in Chennai to expand its operations and talent pool.   

“Our researchers and engineers at AI-ACL join the AI experts at our AI Modeling and Centre of Excellence in Michigan to form a global team committed to advancing the boundaries of AI, software, image processing and physics modeling," said Ahmad Khan, president, semiconductor process control at KLA.   

The company deals with advanced process control for manufacturing integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards, wafers, reticles (part of optical devices) and flat panel displays.  

In May this year, KLA created a $5.5 million India pandemic relief fund to help healthcare facilities procure equipment to fight the pandemic.   

In a July 2021 report by Frost & Sullivan and the Indian Electronics and Semiconductor association, the electronics system market is expected to reach $160 billion by 2025.  

There are also a lot of semiconductor design facilities setup in the country by companies from USA and other areas, so it is only logical that they are looking to now push for manufacturing the chips closer to the design facilities.   

Some of the top players who have back-offices in India include Broadcom, NXP Semiconductors, Wipro’s NXT wing, Samsung Semiconductors, Applied materials, and HCL acquired Sankalp Semiconductors, among a host of others.