Semiconductor company Renesas plans to open new South San Jose campus

SAN JOSE — A major Japanese semiconductor company has big plans for an upcoming expansion in Silicon Valley.

Tokyo-based Renesas Electronics Corporation — one of the biggest makers of semiconductors in the world — will be expanding on a 16-acre Silver Creek Valley Road campus. The company is expected to add 2,000 high tech jobs.

“Obviously, Silicon Valley does continue to be a major source of talent, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence,” said Renesas Executive Vice President Sailesh Chittipeddi, Ph.D.

Semiconductors are the electronic brains that run modern devices like computers, cell phones and televisions.

The company’s South San Jose campus will focus on emerging technologies to run future devices like self-driving cars, which are already coming out of Silicon Valley.

“So it’s very good to be close to the customers, understanding how the products are evolving, so we can adapt our products to meet their needs,” Chittipeddi said.

“If it has a battery or power cord, it probably has a semiconductor,” tech analyst Larry Magid told KPIX. He said semiconductors are what helped give the area its name.

“The reason it’s called Silicon Valley is because there was a time in the early days of the microprocessors when they were actually manufactured here,” Magid said.

Most of Renesas’ work will be in designing chips to run future devices.

But Magid says it’s more of what the valley needs.

“If these companies are willing to hire Silicon Valley workers to design the products and maybe someday build them, that’s good for our local economy and our national security.”