Western Digital (WD), a provider of hard drives and solid state drives, has established a research and development centre in Singapore.
The new HDD R&D Center will leverage the local talent pool and expertise of research organisations including Singapore’s A*STAR Data Storage Institute (DSI), and universities in the development of advanced hard drive technologies.
The company has also said that it is entering an agreement with DSI to collaborate on the development of advanced head, media and hard drive system design.
The new research center will hire an estimated 65 research engineers within the next three years, the company said.
WD said that it will invest approximately $390m in Singapore over the next five years, which includes its recent media plant acquisition, capital equipment for capacity expansion and technology enhancements and the HDD R&D Center.
WD chief operating officer Tim Leyden said Singapore has built a wealth of engineering talent, now available to the company and this is a product of a supportive government, R&D resources from DSI and universities, and a long history of hard drive industry manufacturing and engineering operations in the country.
"The resulting environment has produced an advanced technology research and human resource culture that makes Singapore an ideal location for WD investments," Leyden said.
