The Ministry of Finance today announced that it has submitted bids under the Malaysia-ARM strategic partnership to three local companies as a step to empower and strengthen the nation's capabilities in the local integrated circuit technology design and development industry.
Three local companies, including Great Asic Technology Sdn Bhd, SkyeChip Bhd, and OppStarr Technology Sdn Bhd have been granted access to four ARM technology development tokens, including Arm CSS (Compute Subsystems) and Arm Flexible Access which gives these companies access to Arm's intellectual property to accelerate the process of local semiconductor technology design by these companies.
Minister of Economy, YB Tuan Haji Akmal Nasrullah bin Haji Mohd Nasir said that the submission of these bids signals that Malaysia is heading towards a new phase of the local semiconductor industry.
“Malaysia has long been known for its chip assembly, testing and packaging activities. These strengths are important, but the future of the industry cannot stop there. We must move beyond back-end to front-end, from just manufacturing to designing, developing IP and creating our own technology,” he said.
The Malaysia-Arm collaboration encompasses three main thrusts, namely training 10,000 talents in the integrated circuit design sector, providing access to Arm’s computing technology and portfolio to selected Malaysian companies and developing local semiconductor products designed in Malaysia.
This initiative is in line with the direction of the Thirteenth Malaysia Plan (13MP), the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030) and the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), which emphasises the development of high-value-added industries, chip design, advanced packaging, semiconductor equipment and wafer fabrication.
The Ministry of Economy stressed that the success of this initiative will be measured by its implementation and tangible results, including commercializable products, more IP registered in Malaysia, highly skilled jobs and the involvement of more local talent in high-value chip design work.
Malaysia signed a technology sharing agreement with Arm a year ago, and now, the Malaysian government appears to have started offering this partnership to a number of local semiconductor companies.
