Putrajaya names three Malaysian firms to spearhead Made-In-Malaysia chip project

PUTRAJAYA, May 11 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's administration today handed offers to three local firms picked to spearhead the ambitious made-in-Malaysia chip design project, hailing it as a significant step in strengthening the nation’s capabilities in integrated circuit design.

Four tokens, including Arm CSS (Compute Subsystems) and Arm Flexible Access (AFA), were granted to Great Asic Technology Sdn. Bhd., SkyeChip Bhd., and Oppstar Technology Sdn. Bhd. 

“Malaysia has long been known for chip assembly, testing, and packaging activities,” Minister of Economy Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said at the token handing-over ceremony here.

“This strength is important, but the future of the industry cannot stop there. We must move further from back-end to front-end—from merely producing to designing, developing IP, and creating our own technology,” he added.

The programmee is part of the strategic partnership between the Malaysian government and Arm Holdings, a UK semiconductor giant with an extensive portfolio of chip design Intellectual Property (IP) that helped build an ecosystem enabling over 350 billion chip-based devices to date.

Akmal said the offer opens access to Arm’s computing platforms and intellectual property (IP) portfolio to accelerate the development of local semiconductor products designed in Malaysia.

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