World’s largest chip maker Intel today on Wednesday said India is a great place for microprocessor design but remained non-committal on setting up a manufacturing base in the country. “We have a chip design centre in Bengaluru. Our server microprocessors are designed here and India is an important design centre and we hope to expand here over time. But we do not need any capacity addition. There are no current plans for any factory. But there are better prospects for software and and chip design,” Intel chief executive and president Paul Otellini said.
His comments come nearly two years after the company bypassed India for setting up a semiconductor manufacturing unit. In 2007, former Intel chairman Craig Barrett had said that the decision to overlook India was on account of the government’s delay in announcing a policy for the sector. Intel, which is betting big on WiMax broadband rollout in the country, also said India is not far behind others and the delay is conducting auction for WiMax spectrum would not cause any disruption.
“I do not think the delay in spectrum auction would cause much disruption. WiMax deployment worldwide is taking place for the past 12 months and at the worst India would be six months behind. Auction is going to take place in January and the rates (WiMax auction reserve price) seems reasonable. It is a tipping point. I think it is just right in terms of time,” Otellini said. Anticipating that corporate spending on personal computers could surge in 2010, he said, “There is a very good chance corporate spending on PCs will improve significantly in 2010 and PC sales will also grow next year. Emerging markets will grow faster than mature markets.”