UK Finally Gets a Semiconductor Strategy

The UK government has finally released its semiconductor strategy for the country. After a long delay and criticism from a concerned parliamentary committee, the government announced a £1 billion investment in technology, including £200 million for the period up until 2025. The National Semiconductor Strategy lays out how up the government investment will boost the UK’s strengths and skills and grow domestic chip firms across the UK.

The initial £200 million spend over the years 2023-2025 will be allocated to support the growth of the sector in the UK. It will be spent on improving the industry’s access to infrastructure, facilitating more research and development and fostering greater international cooperation. Specifically, it will be used to improve the UK’s talent pipeline and make it easier for British firms to access prototyping, tools and business support.

The announcement was on the whole welcomed by the industry. However, there were a few voices saying that it didn’t go far enough. For example, Dunstan Power, Director of ByteSnap Design and Versinetic was involved in the consultation. He said, “It is good to see the UK government seeking to better understand the reality of the worldwide semiconductor market and how reliant the West, and the UK in particular, is on SE Asia for semiconductors. Britain is strong on intellectual property innovation in semiconductors and this fund will help with this part of the market. However, it will not address the reliance on overseas suppliers for manufacture and, as such, doesn't tackle the threats to supply chains from volatile geopolitics.”

The UK announced the semiconductor strategy quite a bit later than other countries. As such, it has already missed the boat on the new tranche of fabs being built around the world. Brexit has also compromised its ability to export physical products efficiently, therefore bolstering its research and development capabilities does seem sensible. There may be some room for growth in specialist areas, such as compound semiconductors, so in that aspect the news seems good. Hopefully, in the coming years we can rebuild the ties with the EU that were severed in the Brexit deal and co-operate on science programmes, such as Horizon, where the UK was one of the leading participants in the past. This would allow the UK to take part in the full semiconductor value chain. The government should be applauded is in that it is listening to the industry, and this year, it intends to set up a panel of experts to advise it in the future. Is it all just enough, or too little, too late?