Xilinx Sets Up $75M Asian Venture Fund

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 11/1/2006

Xilinx said today that it has set up a $75 million venture fund to accelerate programmable systems in the Asia/Pacific region, a move that will both seed the regional market for Xilinx’s programmable logic devices (PLDs)  and give the company an early peak at new developments there.

The strategy is hardly a new one in the electronics world. Virtually all of the big players have established funds as a way of gaining a toehold in these markets. Intel, for example, has set up funds in both India and China.

Nor is it new for Xilinx. The company set up a $100 million ecosystem fund two years ago to build a presence in the DSP market, although those investments initially were targeted at the U.S. and Europe.

Xilinx had said publicly that it would introduce the new fund for Asia today, but did not say how much money would be allotted.

Xilinx said its goal is to target vertical markets such as wired and wireless communications, consumer, automotive, broadcasting, and scientific/medical, among others. These also are markets where Asia is beginning to flex its muscle, and where most U.S.-based companies have only limited presence.

Xilinx unveiled the new fund at the Global Entrepolis Singapore event. The company set up a regional headquarters there in 2004 and is currently building a 20,000 square-foot facility there for 500 employees, which should be operational next year.