Indonesia's Danantara, UK-based Arm sign semiconductor deal

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto attended the signing of a cooperation agreement between Badan Pengelola Investasi Daya Anagata Nusantara (Danantara) and Arm Limited in London on February 23, 2026.

The collaboration involves Indonesia sending 15,000 engineers to develop expertise in semiconductor design.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto said the partnership aims to advance Indonesia’s control over semiconductor technology, with Arm holding significant shares in global chip design for automotive, data centers, and AI sectors.

The initiative includes training engineers within the Arm ecosystem and focusing on six national intellectual property areas, such as automotive, IoT, data centers, and emerging fields like autonomous vehicles and quantum computing.

🔗 Source: CNBC Indonesia

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Indonesia follows Malaysia’s playbook with a different price tag

Indonesia’s partnership with Arm fits a broader Southeast Asia push, not a one-off move.
It resembles Malaysia’s March 2025 agreement, which set aside $250 million over 10 years for access to Arm’s intellectual property 1.
Indonesia signed its agreement in London on February 23, 2026. Reports put it at about US$125 million, often cited as US$124.5 million 2.
Indonesia plans to train 15,000 engineers in semiconductor design. Malaysia set a target of 10,000 integrated circuit (IC) design engineers through its own Arm agreement 3.

Training is only the first step

The program answers a global drive to spread semiconductor supply chains beyond China and Taiwan. Southeast Asian countries want to be seen as workable options 4.
Job creation comes next. Indonesia will need enough local chip design companies to hire these graduates, or talent will move to multinational technology companies.
Vietnam already has close to $11.6 billion in semiconductor investment. It also aims to open its first domestically owned semiconductor chip factory in 2026 5.
Companies also face Indonesia’s investment rules. These include a local content requirement that rose to 35% for 4G and 5G devices in 2022 6.