Intel Sees Massive Opportunity In India, Designating It As New Region: Executive VP Schell
Intel has chosen to designate India as its fifth region, recognising the immense potential the country offers. Previously, India was included within the Asia Pacific and Japan region.
“I see a huge opportunity here. I also think it’s amazing how you are weathering the worldwide economic headwinds right now and are probably one of the countries with the highest GDP growth. That is absolutely enormous. And I obviously want for Intel to participate,” Christoph Schell, Executive VP, and Chief Commercial Officer, Intel said at the Intel AI Summit in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
‘No Plans Of Fabs In India’
Intel has a workforce of approximately 14,000 employees in India, with the company having invested about USD 9 billion in the country over the years. “It’s probably one of the largest investments we have made as a company, but we don’t talk much about it,” said Santhosh Viswanathan, MD, Intel India, during his address at the event.
However, the USD 186 billion semiconductor giant does not have a manufacturing facility in India and its workforce in the country primarily focuses on research and development (R&D). The company revealed that it has no immediate plans to set up a fab in the country.
“You will see Intel invest many billions of dollars in the next years to build fabs across the globe and to expand. And I get the question a lot: When are you opening a fab in India? (The answer is) We have no plans yet,” said Schell.
“I am sure we are going to have much more discussions about fabs and a test and assembly, and I am happy to have them. (But) no plans today. But I am also here to may be start thinking about that a little bit,” he added.
Recently, the Indian government greenlit the country’s very first semiconductor fab, which will be made by the Tata Group in partnership with Taiwan’s PSMC. The facility, with the capacity of producing 50,000 wafers per month, will come up in Gujarat with an investment of approximately Rs 91,000 crore.
‘Biggest Impact In AI Will Come From PC’
Currently, cloud technology is the quintessential conduit for AI boom, which attests to the symbiotic relationship between cloud and AI. However, Intel’s Schell believes that the biggest impact in AI will come from personal computers (PCs).
“We are going to use the PC for things that we haven’t used the PC in the past for. One of our founders at Intel, Andy Rhodes, he called the PC the ultimate Darwinian device. That is going to be true. Mark my words, the biggest impact in AI will come from the PC, not from the cloud.” – Christoph Schell, Executive VP, and Chief Commercial Officer, Intel
Schell reasoned that AI usage will be focused in PC soon as “that’s where the usage will happen”. He felt that this would not just happen in terms of inference but also training.
“A lot of customers are paranoid about where they train their data, where they put their data. And many of them are concerned about latency in the network. These are all issues that you don’t have to deal with if you do it on your PC. You can also trust the data on your PC because it’s yours,” Schell added.
Intel is currently placing a heavy emphasis on AI. Last year, the company unveiled its Core Ultra processors, specifically designed for AI-driven tasks. Intel is now aiming to supply core processors for up to 100 million AI-enabled PCs by 2025.
