President Prabowo Saksikan Danantara - Arm in London, Target 15 Thousand Engineers to Master Semiconductor Design

Prabowo Subianto witnessed the signing of a framework agreement between BPI Danantara and Arm Limited in London, Monday (23/2/2026). (IST)

LONDON - President Prabowo Subianto witnessed the signing of a framework agreement between BPI Danantara and Arm Limited in London, Monday (23/2/2026). The government is betting big: Indonesia is asked to enter the upstream semiconductor industry, not just as a market for devices and users of technology.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said Arm was the key to the chip design. "This is a cooperation between Indonesia so that Indonesia can master semiconductor technology. Arm is one of the companies that dominate the semiconductor market, especially in terms of design. So this is the most upstream of the semiconductor industry," said Airlangga after the signing.

Airlangga stated that Arm controls about 96 percent of chip technology for the global automotive sector and almost 94 percent of chip designs for data centers and artificial intelligence. Through this cooperation, Indonesia targets the training of 15 thousand engineers in the Arm ecosystem to master chip design. "The work plan will be continued to the next generation of semiconductors or chips, so that Indonesia has the ability in the semiconductor and design fields," he said.

Airlangga said this step was a follow-up to Prabowo's direction to strengthen national technology mastery independently, complementing the food and energy security agenda. "This is a leapfrog for the digital ecosystem," he said.

Minister of Investment and Industrialization/Head of BPI Danantara Rosan Perkasa Roeslani said the program would run through the delivery of experts abroad or bringing Arm trainers to Indonesia with special modules. "There will be six industries that will be selected... there are 15 thousand engineers who will be trained," said Rosan.

Airlangga detailed six focuses of chip design that will be directed at strategic intellectual property - ranging from automotive, internet of things, data centers, home appliances, to futuristic technology options such as autonomous vehicles and quantum computing. "The IP will be held by Indonesia," he said.