It plans to increase India headcount from 700 to 2,000 in a few years

U.S. semi-conductor firm Micron Technology Inc on Friday opened a 3.5 lakh sq. ft. Global Development Centre in Hyderabad.

Located in Gachibowli, the facility can seat 1,500 people and equipped with six purpose-built design and verification labs. The Nasdaq-listed firm, which has operations in 18 countries and clocked revenues of over $30 billion last year, said the new centre would provide design and product engineering functions for next-generation memory and high-value storage solutions.

In a media interaction ahead of the inauguration, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said with the launch of Global Development Centre here, the firm was expanding its team of engineers, researchers, developers and IT specialists. The company also has a facility in Bengaluru where it employes around 70 people. Micron’s headcount in India would increase from the existing 700 to 2,000 over the next 2-3 years, he said. A release said the company aims to fill a wide range of roles in Hyderabad, including those in engineering, science, research and information technology.

To queries, he said in India the focus of Micron would be to design and innovate, and for now, it has no plans to foray into manufacturing. Micron is the fourth largest semiconductor company and its manufacturing network globally is well established and sufficient to meet the growing demand.

On the occasion, the company also announced a $100,000 grant to Akshaya Patra Foundation’s midday-meal programme through Micron Foundation.

Addressing a gathering of the company’s leadership led by Micron chairman Robert E. Switz and workforce, Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao hoped that the company would undertake manufacturing in Hyderabad. Extending the government’s support, he said, “We will make sure we will meet or beat the best incentive package you have received anywhere in the world”.

Hailing the company’s decision to set up the facility here, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “There can’t be a better destination than Hyderabad. Just about every top company of the world operates from Hyderabad and they do some very unique, frugal engineering, R&D from Hyderabad.”

On the potential for technology firms to grow, he said the semi-conductor industry over the last few decades has been at the heart of technological progress. “It is the backbone behind AI, ML, IoT… the semi-conductor industry will be the driver of growth and therefore it is critical as a lot of R&D and innovation happens from India,” he said.

From 2004 to 2018, nearly 300 million in India were lifted above the poverty line, something that has not happened elsewhere in the world in the recent times. Claiming that every Indian has a biometric identification, mobile phone, bank account, he said, “We are creating data which is never seen before. Our mobile data in itself is more than the mobile data of the U.S. and China put together”.