The world’s second largest computer chip-maker, US-based AMD, is betting big on India and is looking at cashing in on opportunities like the country’s increasing gamer population and rising consumption of multimedia content to boost its business here.

“India is one of the strategic markets for us. We already have an R&D centre here, which is doing a lot of designing work for our global product portfolio. We are really excited by the immense opportunity that the Indian markets presents,” AMD Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Nigel Dessau, told PTI.

There is a growing population of gamers in India and the way people are consuming multimedia like on Youtube, sharing files and social networking, he said. All these require graphic capabilities, which is key in our processors, he added.

The company, which has about 1,100 engineers in India, has two R&D centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“We were relatively late in India, partially because our product portfolio was not that great. But our 2011 range of products that we have launched, we feel are designed to deliver great results and make more sense for the Indian market,” Mr Dessau said.

Recently, AMD had declined to support the newly-launched Sysmark 2012 chip standard and quit the benchmark body, BAPCo, saying it did not accurately reflect the performance of its chips.

When asked about the global demand environment, Mr Dessau said, “The replacement cycle is coming back and new companies also require technology. So, business is good. However, there are still regions which are not yet out of the woods and that is leading to a cautious outlook by most technology firms.”

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