UK government plans to invest more than £1 bn to support the semiconductor industry have been panned as “insignificant” by critics, as the EU plans to invest up to 43 billion Euros in its own chip industry.
Details on the UK’s new 10-year investment strategy were announced following a semiconductor partnership struck between the UK and Japan. The strategy will focus on UK semiconductor design, “compound” semiconductors and research, areas that will require less funding than large scale chip manufacturing.
The strategy also aims to increase the security of chip supply through international partnerships.
Semiconductor investment outside of Asia has skyrocketed in the past three years, as individual countries and regional powers aim to bolster their own manufacturing capabilities after chip stockpiles dwindled during the supply crisis. With the EU investing 43 billion Euros in its semiconductor industry and the US CHIPS Act totalling $52 billion dollars in investment.
Elsewhere, Irish semiconductor company, ADI, invested 630 million Euros in a research and manufacturing facility in Limerick.
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