Jakarta. UK-based semiconductor giant Arm has agreed to train 15,000 Indonesian engineers as the Southeast Asian country wants to hone its chip design skills to perfection.

A framework agreement between Arm and the Indonesian sovereign fund Danantara became the latest souvenir that President Prabowo Subianto is set to bring home from his days-long overseas trip. This deal is expected to enable as many as 15,000 engineers to learn the know-how of chip technologies via Arm’s ecosystem. The engineers will travel to Arm’s headquarters for in-person training. Arm will team up with Indonesian universities, where the company will provide trainers and modules.

“Arm deals with the early part of the semiconductor supply chain. … So we expect our engineers to master chip design technology with this partnership. … Hopefully, our cooperation can extend to the next generation of chips,” Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in London on Monday local time.

Arm provides vehicle technology for 94% of the global automakers. Many of the world’s data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are also Arm-powered.

Airlangga went on to say that Indonesia is eyeing to develop semiconductor intellectual property (IP) blocks in several fields, be it automotive technology, the internet of things (IoT), data centers, home appliances or quantum computing. The semiconductor IP refers to the pre-designed components used in chipmaking. Companies can reuse or license the IP to speed up the process of designing complex semiconductor devices.

"We will own the IP. So whatever company that wishes to reuse our IP must speak with Danantara," Airlangga said.

The senior minister signaled that the deal could become a building block for foreign investors to set up manufacturing in Indonesia. He was even upbeat that this ecosystem could convince semiconductor powerhouses — including Taiwan’s TSMC, California-based Nvidia, as well as South Korea’s SK Hynix — to chip in their money.

“We are expecting some investment in the next phase, where we will begin creating next-generation chips. There will be a bigger investment in [chip] printing, which is now dominated by the TSMC, Nvidia, and SK Hynix. Perhaps they will invest in our country,” Airlangga said.

Arm has not issued an official statement on the partnership at the time of writing.

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