Britain's chip strategy: Cambridge or nowhere
The government has decided not to compete on fabrication plants. Its bet is on design, and on one city
Britain will not try to build the giant semiconductor factories rising elsewhere, the government has confirmed. Its strategy instead is to concentrate on chip design and on the cluster of companies around Cambridge that already dominates it.
The decision ends two years of lobbying by groups that wanted the kind of subsidies other countries have used to attract plants. Ministers concluded that Britain could not match them and should not try.
“We are not going to win a subsidy race against people with deeper pockets,” said one official. “We can win on the thing we are already good at.”
Critics said the approach left Britain dependent on foreign fabrication for everything it designs. Supporters pointed out that it already was.
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