TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsCatch-up costs loom as Prabowo revives semiconductor dream
The government has earmarked US$125 million for the development of a domestic chip design industry, with Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto citing a partnership with United Kingdom-based Arm Holdings.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
This photo taken on Dec. 25, 2024, shows semiconductor chips under process at a factory in Binzhou, in eastern China's Shandong province. (AFP/-)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto has revived the idea of developing a local semiconductor ecosystem amid intensifying competition in the global landscape. However, analysts have raised doubts over whether the country can commit sufficient capital and maintain the policy consistency needed to scale an industry in a red-ocean market dominated by regional peers.
Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto stated the government had earmarked an initial US$125 million to develop the local chip design industry, in partnership with United Kingdom-based Arm Holdings.
“The President has prepared [the fund] to cooperate with Arm, and this could be increased further,” he said on Jan. 13.
Airlangga described semiconductors as a strategic sector, noting their growing use not only in consumer electronics but also in automobiles, the internet of things and data centers.
“This is a catching-up game,” he added. “We are catching up with a market that we have in large size.”
This is not the first time the Indonesian government has pursued the semiconductor dream. The country once hosted semiconductor plants in the 1970s through partnerships with US firms such as Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor, but a shift in industrial policy toward labor-intensive sectors led those investments to relocate to Malaysia by the mid-1980s.
In 2024, Airlangga also revealed a directive from then president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to prepare skilled workers to build local chip design capabilities.
Your Opinion Matters
Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.
Enter at least 30 characters
0
/ 30
Thank you
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.
