Push for UK to build its own AI chip industry

The Council for Science and Technology has published a new report recognising the critical role of semiconductors in achieving the UK’s economic and security goals and has set out the opportunity for the UK to build a globally competitive AI chip design industry.

The Council, which provides independent advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, highlights that the UK is uniquely positioned to build an AI chip design industry with the right investment and capabilities in place.

Recommendations in the report cover the skills and training required to build an AI chip workforce, finance and investment needs, and the infrastructure capabilities the UK requires to achieve this.

Some of the recommendations in the report include:

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Education should increase the number of new chip designers in the UK workforce by 2030.
The two departments should also consider how to expand investment in training and skills for optoelectronics, in particular through the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC).
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Ministry of Defence should set clear strategic objectives on semiconductors to send a strong signal to the UK semiconductor industry on where activity is most useful.
The government should coordinate investment through the entire innovation pipeline to support the growth of the UK AI chip industry.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology should ensure the UK’s semiconductor infrastructure provides SME chip companies and academics with affordable and timely access to facilities.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Business and Trade should explore UK access to the leading-edge technology required by UK startups.

“The UK has a niche and highly specialised chip industry, so it is unlikely that the UK will ever catch up to the current front-runners by taking a broad, generalist approach,” the report states.

“If we are to see economic returns for the UK, the government must focus investment and activity on the parts of the chip industry where the greatest growth is expected and where the UK can achieve a strategic advantage.”

There is growing consensus that over the next 10 years, the fastest growing part of the global chip industry will be in AI chip products (accelerators, memories, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), Central Processing Units (CPUs), interconnects, and packaging).

The global market for AI chips is forecast to grow at approximately 30% per year from now to 2030, at which point AI chips will be over 50% of global semiconductor revenue.