Qualcomm setting up its second biggest campus in Hyderabad, to provide employment to 8,700 people

For Telangana it is almost a windfall with massive investments being announced by three major companies including Qualcomm during the visit of the IT minister KT Rama Rao to the United States. Qualcomm said it is setting up its second largest in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs 3,904.55 crore over five years. The campus works are in progress and the facility will be ready to function by October this year. About 8700 people are to be employed in this facility, the software and semiconductor player informed Rama Rao, who is on a visit to the United States. The software major will be joining the league of several companies that have their biggest campuses outside of the US in Hyderabad.

Two other US-based companies- golf equipment company Callaway Golf and electric vehicles player Fisker Inc- too have announced their plans to set up their technology centres in Hyderabad to provide employment to about 600 people here. Callaway is an interesting addition to the various IT and Tech Development Centres in Hyderabad. This investment opens up a new sector and many more prospective clients from sport and allied fields will look up at Hyderabad to set up their technology centres.

Qualcomm made the announcement after Rama Rao met company Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkiwala, Vice Presidents James Jean, Lakshmi Rayapudi, Parag Agase and Director Dev Singh.

The company explained to the Minister about the work happening on the Hyderabad campus, which will be its second biggest with 15.72 lakh sqft space. It will be completed by October this year. Presence of talented manpower and good and industry friendly policies of Telangana State are the main reasons for it to choose Hyderabad for expansion. The company further plans to make significant investments in the next five years.

Software apart, Qualcomm is looking to tap opportunities in agriculture, education, connected devices and smart cities. The company is engaged in creating semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4G, CDMA and other mobile communications standards. Expressing



happiness over Qualcomm choosing Hyderabad for big investments, Rama Rao said Hyderabad is already home to several marquee names in the technology field.

Earlier, Rama Rao met with Callaway Golf Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Brain Lynch and Chief Information Officer Sai Koorapati.

Callaway Golf said it will set up its DigiTech Centre in Hyderabad and employ about 300 software professionals. It will deal with data analytics and also IT backed support for its global operations. Callaway Golf is a premium golf equipment and active life company with a portfolio of global brands, including Callaway Golf, Odyssey, OGIO, TravisMathew and Jack Wolfskin. The company has annual revenues of $3.2 billion.

Rama Rao also discussed other collaboration opportunities like sport tourism and manufacturing in Telangana. Callaway has zeroed in on Hyderabad after evaluating several cities across the globe.

Fisker Inc, an American electric vehicle company, also chose Hyderabad to set up their IT Development Centre in Hyderabad. It will initially have 300 IT professionals. The Telangana delegation met with Fisker Inc Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Henrik Fisker and Chief Financial Officer Geeta Fisker and the management team in the US. The company was engaged with Telangana State for some time now and officially announced its plans after meeting Rama Rao in the US.

Rama Rao said Telangana will be the destination for the electric vehicle ecosystem and the State is making multiple efforts in this direction. He also gave an overview about the Electric Vehicle Policy of the State and said companies like ZF and Hyundai are already operating in Hyderabad. The State will support manufacturing of electric vehicles. Hyderabad has a lot of scope for design, research and development projects in the automobile sector, he said.

A team from Fisker will visit Hyderabad soon to understand the local EV ecosystem and explore other avenues of collaboration. The company expressed willingness to be part of the Mobility Cluster that Telangana is setting up.