BENGALURU, India — Indian tech giant Wipro Ltd. will create 150 jobs immediately at a new hub for cybersecurity and advanced technology applications that it's creating in Plano, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday.
As many as 450 more of the high-paying jobs will be added at the Plano facility over the next two years, said its chief executive, Abidali Z. "Abid" Neemuchwala, a Dallas-area resident who flew to India separately to appear with Abbott at the event.
Neemuchwala, though, added a caveat. Wipro's vow to double its payroll in North Texas — it already has about 600 employees in Plano — hinges on it being able to find enough freshly minted U.S. college graduates who majored in science, technology, engineering or math.
Abbott announced Wipro is opening a Texas Technology Center in Plano after touring its Electronic City facility in Bengaluru, India.
"This is so exciting because Wipro is one of the premier technology companies on the entire globe, and they're ... expanding their operations in the Lone Star State," Abbott said.
No state subsidies
No taxpayer-money incentives were required to land the expansion, he said.
He called Wipro's decision a savvy one — and further evidence that an amicable bond between state government and the company is deepening.
Abbott noted Wipro researchers are at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics, among other fields.
"The jobs [increment] is good," he said. "Building the bridge to the future is even better."
It's the second job announcement the Republican governor has made during his nine-day trade mission to India. On Monday, Indian conglomerate JSW Group agreed during an Abbott visit to its Mumbai offices to create 500 jobs at a Baytown steel mill.
As he toured Wipro's innovation lab and park-like campus, Abbott appeared jubilant.
While he has said his overtures to India would lead to more job announcements after he returns to Texas, he apparently feared he'd have no more job announcements to make on the trip, his first to the South Asian nation.
"It was fun and fascinating," Abbott said of his two-hour tour. It included a private meeting with Neemuchwala and Wipro chairman Azim Premji, as well as lunch and a walk through landscaped areas with running water and native species that provided a habitat for dazzling butterflies.
Abbott: AV and me, perfect together
Abbott took part in demonstrations ranging from virtual reality simulations of an oil-rig disaster and infrared detection of his blood-sugar levels to a game of tic-tac-toe with a robot.
Earlier, he used a laptop computer to navigate one of the company's autonomous vehicles under development.
With no assistance, Abbott lifted himself from his wheelchair into the small white vehicle, which has room for two average-size people.
"This is made for people in wheelchairs," he said. The door and frame made it easy to haul himself into the "driver seat," he said.
Abbott said touring the Wipro campus is like going to Disneyland.
Wipro's Texan leader
Neemuchwala, who has lived in Coppell for 11 years, called it a special thrill to personally show his company's cutting-edge research to Abbott.
"While I run Wipro, I live in Dallas so I am a Texan," he explained.
Neemuchwala, who earlier worked for Tata Consultancy Services, joined Wipro in 2015. In the Coppell school district, all three of his children attend Richard J. Lee Elementary, where well more than half the children are from families of Indian heritage. He said his wife agreed to move to the Dallas area only if they could have the "best schools," he recounted.
Since moving to Texas, Neemuchwala was promoted to chief executive officer and executive director of the entire company.
He said that for seven years, Wipro has operated a consulting office in Houston that serves U.S. oil and gas companies. It has about 800 employees.
U.S. short on science, math grads
Wipro has hired 120 of the initial 150-person contingent that initially will make up the Plano center's workforce, Neemuchwala said. Slightly more than half are Americans, with the rest coming from India, he said.
Wipro hires graduates of, among other schools, the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Texas A&M University and UT-Dallas, he said.
"One of the challenges of hiring in the U.S. is there aren't enough STEM-educated, graduating students available that we need," he said.
At the company's Plano unit, Wipro will provide six months of on-the-job training to recent college graduates who work in "customer engagement," Neemuchwala said.
"I just hope we are able to find all those kids to work," he said. "Right now, of course, with [low] unemployment rates, it's getting even harder to find tech talent."
Neemuchwala said the jobs pay between $70,000 and $100,000 a year.
Abbott said, "These aren't minimum-wage jobs, and so they are going to get paid pretty well."
While Neemuchwala said Wipro needs a presence in the U.S. because it's "where a lot of tech happens," Abbott said he's trying to raise Texas' visibility so it's foremost in the minds of Indian entrepreneurs when they consider doing more business in America.
"Today's visit to their headquarters in Bengaluru will serve to fortify our already strong partnership," he said of Wipro in a written statement.
Abbott to meet Indian premier Modi
In a major addition to Abbott's schedule, he and first lady Cecilia Abbott are scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his nearly four years in office, Modi has not met with a U.S. governor.
On Wednesday, Abbott also is expected to meet with two Indian Cabinet ministers who oversee energy production and commerce and civil aviation.
On Thursday, the Abbotts will tour the Taj Mahal in Agra, south of New Delhi. They will return late in the day to New Delhi.
In the capital on Friday, Abbott is expected to meet with Gautam Adani. Adani heads the Adani Group, a large Indian conglomerate with interests in coal, ports, shipping, rail, electric generation and agriculture.
He returns to Austin later Friday.
CORRECTION, 6:02 p.m., March 28, 2018: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Wipro Ltd. chief executive Abidali Z. "Abid" Neemuchwala moved to Coppell 11 years ago to try to grow Wipro's U.S. operations. He moved to Coppell then but didn't join Wipro until 2015.
Also, in an interview on Tuesday, Neemuchwala said that Wipro is hiring 150 people at its new Texas Technology Center in Plano this year and hopes to hire another 450 there over the next two years. However, on Wednesday, a Wipro spokesman said in a written statement that the 450 additional positions could be in Plano or Houston, where the company has an oil and gas consulting office. As for timing, he added, "We have not detailed any specific timeline or target on this score."
