Cyient earmarks $100 mn for foray into semicon

Hyderabad: City-headquartered Cyient, an engineering and technology solutions company, on Tuesday announced the launch of its wholly-owned semiconductor subsidiary, Cyient Semiconductors, and setting aside an investment of $100 million for research and development alongwith creation of intellectual property.

The Company officials said that it is looking at raising capital from an external investor by September and is in the process of appointing merchant bankers for the same.

Without quantifying the amount that it is targeting to raise, its Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Bodanapu said the money will be deployed for the talent-intensive research and development efforts.

Bodanapu said that the Board has already committed $100 million for the new venture and it will also be looking to raise more resources from external investors. He said the company is targeting to offer customised silicon chip solutions to a variety of industries, both globally and domestically, including electric vehicles and discoms, which need smart meters.

The demand is also very high for such solutions, and apart from that, it will be focusing on intellectual property creation to grow the new business, he said, adding that developing geopolitics will also act as a tailwind.

Cyient has been engaged in the business already and has deployed 40 customised chips to clients till now, but it carved out the business as a wholly-owned subsidiary for better focus and capitalising on the opportunities, Suman Narayan, the chief executive of the newly created business, said.

Narayan said all the 400 employees of Cyient who are currently engaged in semiconductor-related work will get transferred to the new arm and made it clear that the focus of the new business will not be hiring a lot of people but having quality talent which is able to deliver.

He said the company will not be focusing on the higher-end, lower nanometer chips dominated by the likes of Nvidia but will focus on the more mature higher NM chips.

Driven by strategic organic and inorganic growth, Cyient Semiconductors has built teams across India, the US, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Taiwan.