Prabowo Witnesses Danantara-Arm Deal to Fast-Track Indonesia’s Semiconductor Leap

LONDON, Investortrust.id — President Prabowo Subianto witnessed the signing of a framework agreement between Badan Pengelola Investasi Danantara Indonesia or Danantara and Arm Limited on Monday, Feb 23, 2026 in London to accelerate Indonesia’s entry into semiconductor design, a move officials said aims to position the country at the upstream end of the global chip value chain.

The partnership is designed to enable Indonesia to master strategic semiconductor technology, particularly chip architecture and design, which underpin industries from automotive to artificial intelligence.

Targeting the Upstream of the Chip Industry

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said Arm dominates around 96% of global automotive chip architecture and roughly 94% of chip design for data centers and artificial intelligence.

“This is cooperation so Indonesia can master semiconductor technology, and Arm is one of the companies that controls the semiconductor market, especially from the design side,” Airlangga said after the signing.

He described chip design as the most upstream segment of the semiconductor industry, where intellectual property is created and captured.

Training 15,000 Engineers

Under the agreement, Indonesia aims to train 15,000 engineers within the Arm ecosystem to build domestic capability in chip design.

The program will involve sending Indonesian engineers abroad as well as bringing Arm trainers to Indonesia with dedicated training modules, officials said.

Investment and Downstream Minister and Danantara Chief Executive Rosan Perkasa Roeslani said the initiative would cover six selected industrial segments to develop national chip intellectual property.

“Six industries will be chosen for chip development, and 15,000 engineers will be trained by Arm, either by sending them overseas or bringing trainers to Indonesia,” Rosan said.

Six Strategic Focus Areas

Airlangga said the six areas would revolve around strategic intellectual property, potentially including automotive technology, the Internet of Things, data centers and home appliances.

Two additional areas could target more advanced technologies such as autonomous vehicles and quantum computing, though final selections will be discussed further with Danantara.

The intellectual property generated under the program is intended to be held by Indonesia, strengthening technological sovereignty and reducing reliance on foreign design capabilities.

Leapfrogging in the Digital Economy

Officials framed the partnership as a “leapfrog” strategy to accelerate Indonesia’s transformation from a technology consumer into a higher-value producer within global supply chains.

Prabowo has repeatedly emphasized the need to couple natural resource wealth with technological mastery as part of his broader vision to propel Indonesia toward developed-economy status by 2045.

By embedding domestic engineers in a leading global chip design ecosystem, the government hopes to anchor long-term capabilities in one of the world’s most strategic industries, positioning semiconductors as a digital turbocharger for national competitiveness.

NVIDIA's and Apple's Chip Designer

Arm Limited is a British semiconductor design company headquartered in Cambridge that specializes in creating chip architectures and intellectual property rather than manufacturing chips itself.

Its processor designs are licensed to hundreds of technology firms and are used in smartphones, automotive systems, data centers, networking equipment and Internet of Things devices.

Arm’s architecture powers chips made by companies such as Apple Inc., Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung Electronics and NVIDIA Corporation, and it underpins the vast majority of the world’s mobile processors.

In automotive and cloud computing, Arm-based designs are also widely embedded in advanced driver assistance systems, electric vehicles and hyperscale data centers.

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