nVIDIA to pump $250 mn, up headcount

Programmable graphics technologies major nVIDIA Corporation is planning to invest $250 million for its operations in India and to double its Indian workforce over the period.

nVIDIA opened its first development centre in India at Bangalore last year and has now set up another centre in Pune, by taking over city-based Pace Software.

Jen Tsun Huang, CEO, president and co-founder of the $3 billion California-based company, said India will play a very significant role in nVIDIA's business strategy of global Innovation with local sensibilities.

"We see a huge scope for the Indian software professionals to add value to our product development, as the country has a strong tradition of films and music and has some extremely good design talent," he said.

With the acquisition of Pace Software the company has a workforce of 300, including Bangalore and Pune. This number is expected to double by the end of this year, Huang said.

The Pune centre would be equipped as a state of the art data centre offering facilities for design of technologies for a wide range of products and platforms.

Elaborating on the business opportunity the company is looking at, Huang said the market for digital handheld devices is witnessing an exponential growth.

The mobile phones would not remain simple conversation gadgets for much longer, and would become tools for personal computing and entertainment, he pointed out.

"The company sees bright prospects in the areas of gaming consoles and high definition video that will absorb more digital technology.

We would strive to work together with production houses such as Maya Entertainment and Crest Communication and also to enter in tie up arrangements with i-Cafe operators like Reliance and Sify," Huang explained.

He said the rising trend of high-spec film production would boost nVIDIA's business and the ring tone space which is poised to be a multi billion market will offer significant opportunities as well.

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