| Mr Ken Paxton, Director, Advanced Semiconductor, DigiKey
Ken Paxton serves as the director of advanced semiconductor at DigiKey, where he leads the company’s relationships with top semiconductor suppliers. His team is dedicated to building supplier partnerships and creating innovative market strategies that support mutual growth. Ken’s focus is to help suppliers position their products to meet the latest customer needs, ensuring fast market introduction and connecting them with DigiKey’s broad network of engineers and designers. |
“We are enhancing our logistics to offer products manufactured in India and distributed directly within the country, using local currency,” says Ken Paxton, Director of Advanced Semiconductor for DigiKey, in an exclusive conversation with the ELE Times. As the industries across the globe embrace AI either as agents or as a tool, it becomes more important than ever to check how the companies empowering this revolution are themselves adopting the change. Furthermore, as India’s semiconductor ambitions soar high and the country marches to gain a good piece of the global semiconductor market, ELE Times takes the hot seat with DigiKey’s Ken Paxton to unravel the AI-specific and India-specific strategy of the world’s 5th largest electronics component distributor.
Distributors and AI
“We’ve embedded AI capabilities across DigiKey, not as isolated projects, but as an integrated approach to innovation. We’re using AI to help us make better, faster, and more accurate decisions, serving customers and suppliers more efficiently and effectively,” Mr. Paxton says in response to the AI question. He underlines that to DigiKey, AI is not just about financial parameters but a fundamental commitment to reimagining what is possible.
He further underlines DigiKey’s ultimate vision to be an AI-driven innovator where customer experiences shape the future of the industry.
Underlining India’s commitments to semiconductor growth and innovations are the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) with an outlay of Rs 76,00 Crore and the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) with an outlay of Rs 1,000 Crore, to name a few. Among the schemes, the DLI scheme caters specifically to the design engineers with an aim to foster the semiconductor design ecosystem in India. To that effect, it is important to ensure that the design engineers are provided with the components they need on time with quality assurance.
That’s where DigiKey comes into India’s semiconductor foray.
“India represents a strategic growth region for DigiKey, with a dynamic engineering community that can capitalize on our robust stocking positions,” Ken Paxton says. Recognizing India’s design potential, Mr. Paxton underlines DigiKey’s close collaboration with the Indian supplier community. He says that the collaboration helps DigiKey in getting a comprehensive understanding of manufacturing capabilities and logistics specific to the Indian market.
DigiKey’s India Approach
As the Indian market evolves and the government as well as the private sector get on the nerves, it’s important to track how the distribution giants like DigiKey are responding to the same. To this, Mr. Paxton says, “DigiKey is constantly monitoring evolving opportunities in supplier distribution areas that could help enhance our reach within India to grow the electronics and technology market,” indicating a positive and uplifting scenario for the prospects of the industry.
He also goes on to add about the various other initiatives of DigiKey that aim to empower the design engineers community in India. “Beyond the products that drive technological innovation, DigiKey provides engineers with robust digital solutions, tools, and technical content to enhance their work,” he adds.
Emerging Technologies
Apart from adopting the emerging technologies like AI and automation in internal functioning, DigiKey also purveys the newest technologies and components for building the machines and devices that lead the future. It can range from sectors like healthcare and AI to energy, industrial automation, sustainability, and IoT. “We specialize in maintaining robust inventory across virtually all emerging technologies offered by our suppliers,” adds Mr. Paxton.
India-Specific Customization
Sharing an India-specific example, Mr. Paxton spotlights one instance of their collaboration with a supplier that has recently relocated its manufacturing operations to India. Consequently, DigiKey is enhancing its logistics to offer products manufactured in India and distributed directly within the country, using local currency. Mr. Paxton explained that DigiKey has been engaging with suppliers on developing products tailored to regional technical requirements.
He further explained that the company also provides power products in formats beyond the US standard to ensure Indian users enjoy a seamless, out-of-the-box experience.
Focus on India.
Mr. Paxton explained that India and the broader APAC region will continue to remain a priority for DigiKey, given the strong concentration of technological advances emerging from this part of the world. He further explained that the company’s focus in the region also extends to education and maker products, with an aim to provide cutting-edge technology in user-friendly formats to support aspiring engineers. He added that DigiKey will continue to partner with and promote suppliers committed to these areas.
“Engineering activity is high, and innovation is strong as we move into the second half of the year. We’re thrilled to help support our suppliers as they bring NPIs to market,” says Mr. Paxton as he wraps up the conversation.
| India’s semiconductor ambitions are backed by initiatives like the ₹76,000 crore ISM and the ₹1,000 crore DLI scheme, which focuses on fostering a strong design ecosystem. A critical part of this effort is ensuring design engineers get timely access to quality components.
To highlight how distributors are enabling this, we present our exclusive series — “Powering the Chip Chain” — featuring conversations with key industry players. |
