Intel: Latin America on The Brink of Success

The macroeconomic conditions necessary to give way to a vibrant technology ecosystem have aligned in Latin America. As the region matures, it will create market opportunities for which technology giant, Intel, would like to be present for.  Mexico and Brazil in particular have the potential to become technology superpowers, said Intel's new Director for the Americas, Greg Ernst.

"Some of the biggest technology companies in the world are going to come out of Latin America and we want to be there and partner with them. It does not take anything away from what we do in the United States and Canada, but I see that Latin America is on the brink of a great explosion of success," said Ernst to EFE.

The COVID-19 pandemic and diminishing costs of production enabled the digital ecosystem to expand outward from information economies to emerging economies where internet penetration has steadily increased. This uptake has fueled the growth of a burgeoning and competitive technology startup ecosystem in Latin America that has translated into economic might for their respective countries and people. This accelerated progression has not gone unnoticed by technology companies that in recent years have poured in billions of dollars in investment, Intel among them.

Furthermore, beyond the significant market potential these economies represent, they are also generating the highly-skilled talent needed to support this digital take off. Mexico in particular has generated a surplus of specialized talent that has attracted nearshoring campaigns from multiple US companies looking to fulfil their domestic deficits. Just last year, Intel hired an additional 700 people to work in its Guadalajara Design Center, one of Intel's most important design and validation centers worldwide and the company's first acquisition in Latin America.

"We are going to continue investing there. All our clients in the Americas and in the world, the servers that deploy the largest clients in the world, such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, receive their last validation in Guadalajara," said Ernst.

The company did not disclose any specific figures regarding their planned investments, aside from confirming “common ambitions” with Mexico's Minister of Economy, Tatiana Clouthier, who looks to bring semiconductor production to Mexico. Intel's ultimate goal is for 30 percent of the world's semiconductors to be produced in the Americas, where it sees Mexico playing an important role.

"We have made very strategic decisions in Mexico with the Guadalajara Design Center. That center does what we call the final validation and it is a critical step in the development of all our future generation products," he said.