Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari
PETALING JAYA: The Selangor state government is committing between RM5mil and RM10mil annually over the next 10 years to develop the front-end semiconductor value chain, which involves chip designing.
Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the state’s commitment also depends on the commitment from the federal government. He noted that the federal government, through the Economy Ministry, has increased its support from RM60mil to RM100mil.
“As of now, we are committing almost RM5mil to RM10mil a year. However, it depends on the commitment from the federal government. It is a one-to-one investment,” he told the media on the sidelines of the launch of the first-ever Arm-led training programme in Malaysia yesterday.
This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Advanced Semiconductor Academy of Malaysia (Asem) and Arm. Hosted under the Malaysia IC Design Park initiative, the Arm On-Demand Training Programme commenced with an inaugural cohort of 400 engineers.
The programme is also in line with the billion-ringgit deal that Malaysia secured with Arm Holdings PLC in March this year.
Under the deal, Arm will provide Putrajaya with intellectual property (IP) licences and compute subsystems (CSS) for US$250mil (RM1.11bil), to be paid over 10 years. The United Kingdom-based firm will collect royalties on chips sold.
Further, the Arm-Malaysia partnership earlier this year also entails the training of 10,000 local integrated circuit (IC) design engineers by Arm.
Amirudin said the target is to train around 1,000 engineers a year, beginning with the first cohort of 400 engineers already enrolled in the programme.
“If we have two or three cohorts, we can reach our target of 1,000 each year,” he said.
Amirudin said the Arm On-Demand Programme will move Selangor and Malaysia from completely relying on foreign direct investment towards building leaders to form startups which can later go on to be Selangor and Malaysia’s leading companies to invest and export to other countries.
“I am thrilled that Arm has decided to commit the next decade of its technical and engineering know-how to hire Selangorians through a partnership with Asem, building on the success of the IC Design Park in Puchong which has over 400 engineers working with some of the leading companies in Malaysia and beyond,” he said.
Rakuten Trade head of equity sales Vincent Lau said the amount allocated by the Selangor state government is a good starting point, especially in terms of talent development.
“For training purposes, the amount committed is sufficient – they have already started with a few cohorts, and it is clear the government is serious, especially with the Arm deal in place.
“If more is needed later on, I believe they will adjust accordingly,” he told StarBiz.
Lau said it may not be sufficient if the funding is meant to cover the broader goal of developing front-end semiconductor capabilities, which typically require significant capital investment and long-term infrastructure planning.
“However, this is still an important first step. At least now we are on the right path,” he added.
Tradeview Capital fund manager Neoh Jia Man said the RM5mil to RM10mil a year is “definitely not enough” and that it is “a drop in the ocean” in driving development in the local front-end semiconductor space.
“Not only is it a very specialised and capital-intensive segment of the semiconductor value chain, but Malaysia is also facing fierce competition from other countries, who are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into developing their own front-end IC design industries.
“The good thing is that the federal government is also stepping in with additional funding, and that collective effort could help alleviate some of the talent shortages – particularly in the front-end of the value chain,” he said.
On whether the Arm On-Demand training programme can help to plug the talent gap in the semiconductor industry, Neoh said, “The National Semiconductor Strategy targets 60,000 engineers in six years – about 10,000 annually.
“If 30% to 40% of those are meant for front-end roles, that is about 3,000 to 4,000 engineers a year.
“The Arm-led programme aims to train 10,000 engineers over 10 years, or about 1,000 a year.
“Hence, that covers roughly a third of what is needed for front-end IC design annually – which is actually a significant portion,” he said.
To this end, Lau noted Arm’s training programme will “definitely help to plug the talent gap” in the sector.
“Even if we manage to fill 50% to 60% of the gap, it is already an improvement. Any increase in local talent supply is good, especially in light of the short supply of engineers,” he said.
