An executive at U.S. semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials told Nikkei Asia that the company plans to increase its total workforce in Southeast Asia by 25% this year, as the region, particularly Singapore, becomes increasingly important to its manufacturing and R&D operations.

Brian Tan, Corporate Vice President and President of Southeast Asia at Applied Materials, said the company plans to hire at least 1,000 more employees in the region, primarily in Singapore. Singapore is becoming the company's main manufacturing base, global logistics hub, and R&D center for next-generation chip packaging equipment.

"Two years ago, we had nearly 3,300 employees, so we've grown a lot," Tan said, adding that the number will approach 4,000 by the end of 2025.

Advanced chip packaging technology

Applied Materials, the highest-revenue semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the United States, produces a wide range of chip manufacturing tools covering processes such as ion implantation, deposition, polishing, and metrology. In recent years, the company has also increased its investment in advanced chip packaging technologies, including hybrid bonding—a key assembly process used to connect and stack different types of chips to achieve higher performance and efficiency.

Chip packaging was once a neglected part of semiconductor manufacturing, but its importance has become increasingly apparent as major chip manufacturers, including TSMC and Intel, continue to improve their advanced packaging capabilities to enhance computing performance. Leading AI chip companies such as Nvidia, Google, and Amazon are also actively developing more advanced packaging technologies to tightly connect and integrate graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), and memory chips, thereby enabling faster and more efficient computing.

According to Mr. Tan, Applied Materials has also established a vast supply chain network in Southeast Asia and is continuously expanding its operations in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

"One thing we learned from the last supply chain crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic is that you really want many links in your supply chain to be very close to this operational manufacturing hub," Tan said.

He stated that the company has been working to enhance the resilience of its supply chain by bringing more regional suppliers closer to its production center in Singapore. The executive also noted that top talent in Singapore and the surrounding region is increasingly interested in career development in the high-tech industry, whereas in the past many graduates preferred jobs in finance and services.

"Semiconductors are a foundational technology. Without semiconductors, there is no digital economy, and no artificial intelligence. Many young people now realize… it may not be the easiest of all industries. It's a very fast-paced industry, but it's crucial today, and it's a foundational industry. More and more ambitious young graduates are focusing on this industry," Tan said, adding that artificial intelligence has already influenced many people's perceptions of the industry.

The stable economic and political environment in Singapore and Malaysia has prompted US semiconductor equipment manufacturers to implement large-scale expansion plans in both countries. Lam Research, a leading U.S. supplier of chip etching and cleaning equipment, has significantly expanded its production capacity in Penang, Malaysia.

Source: Compiled from Nikkei

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