Chip Manufacturer Imec To Receive $2.7 Billion From Chips Act Funding

Recently, the US government awarded grants and other benefits to a range of technology companies engaged in the semiconductor industry and chip manufacturing.

This included $6.4 billion to Samsung and $6.6 billion to TSMC in grants to boost US chip fabs, prior to which Intel received almost $20 billion in awards from the US government to grow its chip business.

The idea is to boost chip manufacturing and enable the availability of the most powerful and capable chips, as the world embraces digital transformations. This becomes more important as the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) continue to revolutionize industries.

Keeping to this thought, the European Union (EU) introduced the EU Chips Act to reinforce the semiconductor ecosystem in the region.

Now, Imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announced that it was set to a be recipient of the EU Chips Act, boosting its chips efforts.

So, what did the company reveal? Let’s explore!
 

What Did Imec Announce?

 

• Through a press release published on its website, Imec announced it will receive €2.5 billion ($2.72 billion) to set up the NanoIC pilot line, which is a pilot line to boost the next generation of advanced computer chips.

• The NanoIC pilot line will be hosted by Imec and supported by pan-European partnerships, with the aim of developing and commercializing beyond 2nm systems-on-chips.

• As per the release, “Imec will host the beyond 2nm SoC R&D pilot line and participate in the pilot lines on low power FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) and on heterogeneous system integration.”

• Its partners include CEA-Leti (France), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany), VTT (Finland), CSSNT (Romania) and Tyndall Institute (Ireland).

• The announcement was originally made at Imec’s technology forum, ITF World 2024.

• While the total expected investment is set at €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion), the amount will consist of a combination of public and private contributions.

• As per the release, the contribution from EU funding programs such as Horizon Europe and Digital Europe coming through the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) and Flanders, will include a total public funding of €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion).

• The release further states “The grant agreement with the Chips JU is currently ongoing and will be signed later this year.”

• On the other hand, the private investment will come from a wide range of industry partners, which includes ASML. The expected amount of investment is set at €1.1 billion (1.2 billion).

• The idea of the pilot line is to support various industries in Europe, including automotive, telecommunications, health and others, while developing future-proof products that leverage the latest chip innovations.

• Additionally, the move will help European and international companies explore new technologies before they go into large-scale production.

• The pilot line will be constructed as an extension of the company’s already existing pilot line facilities.

• “This cornerstone investment will be leveraged further through strong contributions from EU and global industry to run projects on the pilot line,” reads the release.

 

What Did Imec Say?

 

• Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of Imec, said, “The support from EU, the Flemish government and industry partners will enable us to not only retain our leadership position, but also pivot closer to market demands.”

• [Contd.] “The investment will allow us to double volumes and learning speed, accelerating our innovation pace, strengthening the European chip ecosystem, and driving economic growth in Europe.”

Do you think other countries and regions should make moves similar to what the European Union (EU) and the US are doing? Do you think governments need to invest more resources considering the prominence of the chip industry?

Let us know in the comments below!