LONDON — The UK on Friday announced that it would bolster its domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity and, following a request for help from some bosses at some of the country’s biggest companies, would pay up to $1 billion to the semiconductor industry to prevent further supply disruptions. announced support of £1.24 billion.
The investment is part of a 20-year strategy for semiconductors facing long delays and outlines Britain’s plan to secure chip supplies and protect against national security risks.
The strategy, due to be unveiled later on Friday, sets out a series of measures aimed at growing the UK’s domestic chip sector, mitigating the risk of supply chain disruptions and protecting national security.
As part of its strategy, the UK will seek to strengthen cooperation with international partners. This week, in Hiroshima, the UK signed a deal with Japan to strengthen cooperation in the defense and semiconductor sectors.
The government initially announced that it would invest up to £200m between 2023 and 2025, and then increase investment to up to £1bn over the next 10 years. This funding will be used to improve our talent pipeline and improve access to prototyping, tools and business support.
“Semiconductors underpin the devices we use every day and will be crucial to advancing tomorrow’s technology,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Snack said in a statement.
“Our new strategy focuses on where our strengths lie in areas such as research and design, allowing us to build a competitive edge on the global stage.”
“By increasing the capacity and resilience of the world’s leading semiconductor industry, we will grow our economy, create new jobs and keep ourselves at the forefront of new technological innovations,” he added.
New guidance will be issued to inform businesses of the risk of supply shocks to prevent disruptions from future supply shortages, while the UK is working with international partners to increase the resilience of global chip supply chains. The government said it aims to strengthen
An advisory board made up of industry, government and academic stakeholders has also been set up to work closely towards common solutions and implementations, he added.
“applied the right way”
Rather than matching some With regions such as the US and EU pledging huge spending, the UK is coming up with a different approach aimed at bolstering its expertise.
Officials conceded that it didn’t make sense for Britain to build its own large-scale fabs like those run by Taiwanese chip giant TSMC to make cutting-edge chips.
Instead, they focus on other parts of the semiconductor industry, such as intellectual property and design and manufacturing non-silicon chips.
Britain’s semiconductor strategy was expected to be announced last year. However, it has faced a series of delays due to political instability. The country’s chip executives have expressed frustration at the government’s lack of a concrete strategy for semiconductors.
The United States and the European Union have pledged billions of dollars in aid to their respective chip sectors, but Britain’s strategy has been delayed amid repeated government changes following the resignations of former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. facing setbacks.
Pragmatic Semiconductor, a Cambridge, UK-based non-silicon chip maker, warned earlier this year that it could be forced to move overseas if the government doesn’t come up with a plan for the industry soon. IQE, a microchip company based in a semiconductor “cluster” in Newport, Wales, also warned it could be forced to move to the US or EU if the government didn’t act soon.
Scott White, founder of British semiconductor company Pragmatic Semiconductor, said the government’s £1 billion pledge, while small compared to the US and EU, is the “real world” that UK industry needs. , feels like a good number.” However, he cautioned that the funds must be “applied in the right way.”
“Likewise, if it just repackaged other things that existed, it wouldn’t be particularly useful,” White told CNBC earlier this week.
The UK is a modest player in the global chip market, specializing in the design, intellectual property, research and manufacturing of advanced compound semiconductors.
It’s home to chip designer Arm, one of the most coveted semiconductor assets. The Cambridge-based company uses Arm-licensed chips in about 95% of the world’s smartphones.
The country is also noted for its role in developing ultra-thin semiconductor wafers made from graphene.
Semiconductors and the mostly East Asian-based supply chains behind them have become a thorny problem for governments around the world after global shortages led to supply problems for major automakers and electronics makers. there is
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed an over-reliance on Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers for semiconductor components. That dependency is fraught with rising tensions between China and Taiwan.
Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC is the largest producer of microchips. Its chip-manufacturing capacity is the envy of many Western developed nations, which are taking steps to increase domestic production of chips.
In the United States, President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, a $280 billion package that includes $52 billion in funding to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
On the other hand, the EU Approved €43 billion It will provide ($45.9 billion) to the European semiconductor industry with the goal of producing 20% of the world’s semiconductors by 2030.
British lawmakers said the government’s lack of a similar strategy was hurting the country’s competitiveness. On February 3, lawmakers on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee called the lack of a coherent microchip strategy “national self-harm” and called for government action against the semiconductor industry.