As the semiconductor industry continues to evolve and expand, AMD India is taking on the challenge of diversifying its product portfolio through cross-collaboration. With the recent acquisitions of Xilinx and Pensando, AMD India's Country Head Jaya Jagadish sees an opportunity to expand the India Development Centre's R&D scale and technical capabilities and become the hub for delivering differentiated IPs and designs. 

In this exclusive CEO interview, Jaya Jagadish also discusses AMD's commitment to driving industry-wide digital transformation, sustainability, and resilience in the long term, and more.  Jaya is the winner of the 2020 Rising Woman of Influence award by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA). 

Here are the edited excerpts. 

As the country head of AMD India, how do you plan to leverage the talent and technical capabilities of the Xilinx and Pensando teams to drive innovation and R&D, and what are your top priorities for 2023?

AMD’s India Development Centre (IDC) is on an exciting growth path, especially with the company’s acquisition of Xilinx and Pensando in 2022. Both these entities have their largest presence in India outside of the United States. Combined with their incredible talent, we are today 6000+ strong. This is 4x growth in the last five years and today India teams have an R&D footprint in every product across AMD’s diversified portfolio.

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As country head, my focus in the coming year is to stabilise this growth and develop collaborative opportunities across the new teams to drive innovation and operational efficiencies from IDC. I will also work closely with the regional leadership and HR to assimilate new team members into AMD’s culture and ensure they feel a strong sense of belonging.  

Externally, I am excited about the opportunity given to me by the Government of India to lead the Semicon India Future Skills Talent Committee. As chairperson of the 13-member panel, we have submitted a report to the government on ways to strengthen the Semicon talent in India. This year, we will be partnering with government and educational institutions like AICTE to action the recommendations.

What do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges for AMD India Development Centre in 2023, particularly in light of the recent acquisitions?

The acquisitions have diversified AMD’s portfolio beyond CPUs and GPUs, to now include adaptive SoCs, networking, storage, SmartNic technologies and accelerators. And these new teams have a large presence in India. In fact, 25% of AMD’s workforce is now in India.

This gives IDC, an incredible opportunity to expand our R&D scale and technical capabilities to go up the value chain at AMD. Through cross collaborations between varied teams, and the exchange of ideas, we can deliver differentiated IPs and designs to become the innovation hub for our company especially around new technologies like AI, ML etc.

The challenge will be to ensure we lay the right foundation both from a people and process perspective to tap this opportunity.  

How is AMD leveraging digital transformation to drive business growth and adapt to the changing market?

At AMD, we recognise that semiconductors are critical to driving digital transformation across industries. We are proud to be building some of the world's most advanced processors that power the most ambitious ideas across various sectors. Our focus on innovation and R&D has enabled us to create cutting-edge technology that spans AI, healthcare, aerospace, automotive, gaming, entertainment, and defense. As the importance of semiconductors continues to grow in today's digital world, we are committed to driving industry-wide digital transformation by providing solutions that empower our customers to achieve their goals.

How is AMD ensuring the sustainability and resilience of its business in the long term, given the current market uncertainties?

AMD recognises the importance of its engineering talent as the backbone of the company and is focused on retaining and hiring the right talent for continued growth. Despite short-term macroeconomic uncertainties, the company believes that the demand for high-performance and adaptive computing will continue to grow in the next few years. To position itself for continued growth, AMD has diversified its product portfolio, deepened customer relationships, and expanded into new markets. The company has a strong technology roadmap, and its teams are focused on delivering on this roadmap to maintain AMD's leadership in adaptive and high-performance computing.

How is AMD addressing the shift towards remote work and flexible work arrangements, and what steps are being taken to maintain a collaborative work environment while offering flexibility to employees?

The pandemic has taught us many things and we now offer a more flexible workplace. Having said that, teamwork and collaboration are an essential part of the AMD culture, and we believe there is tremendous value in returning to a work environment where a large portion of our teams are working from the office and collaborating in person with their colleagues. Productivity and deliverables being of paramount importance, we allow flexibility within these boundaries. An employee deemed essential is required to work from the office on most days and a hybrid worker works for a minimum of two days. Remote work is offered in exceptional cases.

This interview is part of an exclusive series that featured CEOs and MDs of top organisations sharing their perspectives on the ever-evolving business landscape and the future of work. Browse all the interviews here!