PETALING JAYA: At least 5,000 local talents will be trained in Arm Ltd technology by the end of 2027, with the partnership funnelled towards a Made-in-Malaysia chip, says economy minister Akmal Nasir.
Speaking at his ministry’s monthly assembly today, Akmal said the target is an important benchmark towards the commitment to train 10,000 talents over the next four years under the Malaysia-Arm partnership, Bernama reported.
He said 1,530 participants have undergone training linked with the British semiconductor tech company so far, with the four-year target requiring an average of 2,500 new talents in circuit design each year.
Akmal said discussions with 12 universities last week showed that they have the capacity to collectively train at least 2,500 designers annually, to support chip design, and beyond, using Arm technology.
He said several universities have agreed to integrate Arm’s training into their academic programmes, including in their students’ respective fields of study.
The strategic partnership will incorporate Arm expertise into the universities’ industrial training and internship modules, as well as final-year projects.
He said those who complete their training with Arm Ltd will also have the opportunity to undergo industrial training with companies that have Arm Flexible Access (AFA) tokens.
The technology access is to help local R&D and manufacturing of integrated circuit design for products like drones and microelectronics, to bring Made-in-Malaysia chips to the global supply chain.
“We do not want our young people, after gaining exposure, to be recruited for work in other countries or foreign companies, while local firms claim that talent is unavailable, insufficient or difficult to find,” he said.
AFA tokens provide companies with early, lower-cost access to Arm’s chip designs, allowing them to experiment, develop and test products without paying full licensing fees upfront.
