Nobel laureate Shuji Nakamura and CREST’s Gallium Nitride advancements
Digerati50, Nobel laureate Shuji Nakamura, and CREST’s Gallium Nitride talent bet with 60x returns generated
By Karamjit Singh January 6, 2025
- Steven DenBaar & Nobel laureate, Shuji Nakamura to highlight tech trends
The 6th edition of Digital News Asia’s Digerati50 annual networking event on 10th Jan, hosted by Cyberview Sdn Bhd in Cyberjaya, welcomes a very special guest – 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, Professor Shuji Nakamura from the University of California, Santa Barbera (UCSB).
Due to the time difference between Kuala Lumpur and Los Angeles, Nakamura will be sharing his thoughts on the opportunities for Malaysia in the world of semiconductors with pre-recorded remarks. His close associate and fellow researcher, Prof Steven DenBaar will share the stage with him and will be on hand to take questions via video call from the US.
A former engineer at HP before going into academia, DenBaar, who has over 150 patents to his name, said he has worked in Penang and visited at least 40 times so far, and hopes to make another trip soon.
The guest of honor for Friday’s networking will be Economy Minister, Rafizi Ramli.
As to why a much in demand Nobel Laureate is even aware of the Digerati50 and would want to speak to a group of Malaysian and Malaysian based (not all the Digerati50 are Malaysian, some launched their businesses here or relocated to Malaysia ) founders, well, we have Jaffri Ibrahim, a Digerati50 who is also CEO of CREST (Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology) to thank for.
Based on industry feedback from his board of directors and indications of support from MIDA (Malaysian Investment Development Authority) Jaffri took a calculated bet in 2013 on a technology called Gallium Nitride (GaN) based on his strong belief that Malaysian talent could be trained into a world class pool of GaN researchers and engineers. It just needed guidance and strong government support. It was a journey that brought Malaysia into Nakamura’s orbit.
CREST is that rare Federal Government agency focused on engineering and innovation that was not based in Kuala Lumpur. Launched in 2012 the logical decision was made for it to be based in Penang, the heart of Malaysia’s engineering prowess, as best exemplified by the strong semiconductor belt that extended from Bayan Bayu in Penang up to Kulim High Tech Park, Kedah.
Back then, only the semiconductor ecosystem recognized the key role Penang played in the global semiconductor value chain. It took the pandemic to vault Penang’s importance in the value chain into the global spotlight.
Bullish on Malaysia and Penang’s future in an increasingly semiconductors reliant digital economy, DenBaar’s says, “Penang is the place to be if you want to launch a high-tech startup in the semiconductor ecosystem.”
As confident as he was about the quality of Malaysian engineers to take up the GaN challenge, even Jaffri could not have foreseen the staggering impact the RM76.91 million government funds he managed to get, would deliver.
That funding helped to acquire key equipment and develop talent needed for GaN labs at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang and Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. 13 students were sponsored to do their PhD under Nakamura at UCSB. The GaN talent pool that was developed since 2013 numbers over 70 as of 2021, which includes local researchers that were sent to UCSB for six months stints. More than numbers, the labs at both universities are also recognized for their world-class research.
A more quantifiable payback came in 2015 when German multinational Osram (via M&A Osram since 2020 has become ams Osram) decided to build a cutting edge LED plant in Kulim. The plant opened in Nov 2017 with an investment of €370 million (RM1.71 billion), with two future planned upgrades that would take the total investment to €1 billion.
An ams OSRAM executive confirms that the planned expansions did happen and total investments are in the €1 billion (RM4.64 billion) range. Versus the RM76.9 million funding by the government in 2014, this would equate with an indirect return of 60x.
It is no exaggeration as the ams OSRAM executive, familiar with HQ deliberations around 2014 when deciding on which country to locate the facility said that Malaysia’s investment into building a pool of GaN expertise, which was still in its early days globally, was a key factor. “If you weren’t already building this specialised talent, it didn’t matter what other incentives you were offering,” he explained.