How long can the US stay on top of the tech heap?
Published: 01 Jun 2005 11:45 BST
How does that compare with your other R&D sites? Is that the biggest one you have now?
Oh no, no. Our largest one by far is here, in San Jose.
How many people are there?
We have 912. We have maybe 250 in the Boston area. We have on the order of 100 in North Carolina, and we probably have another 100 or 150 in Austin. There are some other small sites scattered around to tap into pockets of talent. We also have about 100 R&D people in China.
How long has that been the case?
Three years.
And where are they located?
About half in Beijing and half in Shanghai.
Do you expect that China presence to be growing in the years to come — that China and perhaps India are likely to be the place where you're going to grow furthest in the R&D arena?
Well, I would say that you can certainly expect to see sites like that and other developing-country sites continue to grow.
Do you have any formal plan or informal plan you can give publicly, especially in terms of headcount? What do you expect in China over the next five or 10 years?
There's nothing that I'd be comfortable talking about, other than to say that the principle of putting your resources where the market is and where your customers are is not an option. That's something that you have to do in order to effectively serve the markets that we're competing in. So if the centre of gravity of the semiconductor world and the electronics world is continuing to move to Asia and to other developing country centres, then you would expect to continue to see those sites grow with the market.
That raises this concern of the US losing all of its technological leadership — not only in the manufacturing of semiconductors, but then the design work and, in your case, the know-how to make the tools for designing chips. How do you deal with that concern?
I think that's a risk that [the US] should care about as a nation. And it's entirely within [the US'] grasp to make sure that it doesn't happen.
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