Qualcomm will inaugurate its second largest office outside the U.S. in India later in 2022 to create jobs for about 8,700 software professionals at a cost of more than $500 million over the next five years, according to government officials in India.
Rama Rao, the minister for IT and Industries in Telangana, India, said in a recent tweet that Qualcomm will be expanding its campus in Hyderabad, India, with an investment of Rs 3904.55 Crores, equal to $513 million.
The new campus will be spread over 1.5 million square feet in Ryayadurgam, Hyderabad, the minister said. The news came after a delegation from India met in Qualcomm’s San Diego headquarters with Qualcomm’s CFO and other Qualcomm leaders.
Already in the first quarter of 2022, Qualcomm has posted nearly 400 job openings in Hyderabad, according to a tabulation by Sherla Sriprada, an analyst at GlobalData. The firm expects “heightened hiring activity in India in coming days,” Sriprada said.
Recent postings included job roles in wireless modem, embedded Linux OS and creation of new products for silicon test and advanced diagnostic platform on cloud. The company is expanding into vehicular communication to stretch beyond the mobile space into areas that require prototype software creation, among other areas, Sriprada said.
A report in the Business Standard said Qualcomm and the Telengana government officials agreed to partner on technologies for agriculture, smart cities, digital education and connected devices. Qualcomm did not comment.
Qualcomm, with about 45,000 employees globally, has been on a strategic direction to expand beyond chips for mobile phones, entering into developing products for autonomous vehicles and other markets where software skills are needed. Typically, software engineers are paid in the U.S. from $110,000 to $200,000 annually.
During the trip to the U.S. Rao also had a separate meeting with Fisker CEO Henrik Fisher, the publication reported. Fisker is developing EVs and vehicles with advanced driver assistant systems.
Foxconn, which makes iPhone in India for Apples, is planning to make EVs for Fisker over the next two years, according to reports. Fisker is expected to set up a tech center in Hyderabad, according to Economic Times.
The paper quoted CEO Fisker as saying he thinks the coming Fisker Pear vehicle will get produced by Foxconn in India before Tesla starts production of its vehicles in India. Pear’s entry price would be below $30,000, with the Ocean SUV, coming in November, priced from $37,000 to $69,000.
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