Penang has engaged 16 strategic investors in the United States to attract fresh investment and encourage existing companies to expand their operations in the state, according to the New Straits Times.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the investment and trade mission to San Jose, California, which he led on 28 September, was aimed at renewing ties and strengthening collaboration with American technology leaders.
The companies engaged included semiconductor and technology firms AMD, Intel, Micron, Lam Research, Cadence, Intuitive and Applied Materials, as well as Bank of America.
“Discussions focused on the strong growth momentum driven by the global artificial intelligence supercycle and its transformative impact across various industrial sectors,” he said in reply to Muhammad Fauzi Yusoff (Sungai Dua), who asked about the outcome of the trip.
Chow said the companies reported growing demand visibility and encouraging growth projections, which pushed them to reassess their requirements for highly skilled talent, testing capacity and supply chain capabilities. The talks also gave the state, The Star reported, a clearer picture of what global firms need and how Penang can meet it.
In response, the Penang delegation presented two state initiatives: Penang Silicon Design @ 5km+ and the Malaysia Automated Test Equipment Campus.
“Both initiatives offer companies faster product development cycles, expanded and modernised testing capacities, as well as an integrated ecosystem connecting design, manufacturing and advanced testing,” he said.
Automated test equipment covers the machines that check a chip’s electrical behaviour before it leaves the factory, a step that sits between fabrication and final assembly. The two initiatives are the state’s platforms for integrated circuit design work and for chip testing, the segments it is promoting alongside its established manufacturing base.
Chow said the exact investment value could not be projected yet. Foreign investment processes typically take years, running from the first discussions and site selection through to final negotiations, and the full outcome of the trip is therefore not yet known.
He also fielded a question on factory closures. Social Security Organisation Employment Insurance System data from January to 9 October showed 1,755 local manufacturing workers had entered career transitions. Of that number, 372 workers, or 21.2 per cent, were affected by business or division closures involving 48 manufacturing employers.
The remaining 1,383 workers in transition were recorded outside those closure cases, according to the same dataset.
The state’s pitch to American firms rests on the layer of the chip supply chain that sits above assembly: design work, advanced packaging and the testing step that decides whether a finished wafer becomes a sellable product. Those are the segments the delegation put in front of the 16 companies in San Jose.
Talent supply, test capacity and supply chain depth are the three areas the firms flagged. All three feed the state’s own planning around the design and testing initiatives, which the delegation put to the 16 companies in San Jose.
