Yet another report to government is highlighting the need for more AI chip designers in the UK if it is serious about a sovereign semiconductor industry.
www.eenewseurope.com/, Aug. 20, 2025 –
The latest report by the Centre for Science and Technology, a group of US and UK academics and bankers, highlights the fragmented nature of advice around semiconductors as it appears not to have taken into account several recent publications on semiconductor skills, including four projects that have been in the works for two years, and is inconsistent in its recommendations.
The CST highlights the UK will require approximately 16,800 over the next five years, an increase of 4,800 new designers. Replacing retiring designers, where 39% are expected to retire in the next 15 years, will bring that number up to 7,000.
The advice has been led by Professor Nick McKeown, a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments at Stanford University, and a visiting professor at Oxford University, with support from Saul Klein, founder of Seedcamp, Sir John Lazar, president of the royal academy of engineering, and Professor Lynn Gladden, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge.
It also took personal contributions from Matt Clifford, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on AI Opportunities and Suraj Bramhavar, Programme Director, Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as well as Noa Zilberman, Associate Professor, University of Oxford and Kristen McLeod, Chief Strategy Officer, British Business Bank. The only voice of industry was Richard Grisenthwaite, the Chief Architect at UK chip designer ARM.
“With the right investment and capabilities in place, the UK could create a meaningful AI chip design industry. We have strong AI and design expertise and creativity in our universities; a growing ecosystem of AI companies; and ARIA’s Scaling Compute program has identified and brought together, for the first time in the UK, talent and ideas with the potential to create novel vertical AI systems.”
“However, this would require bold commitments from the government to put the right foundations in place, including the training of an AI chip workforce. We believe this is likely a once-in-20-years opportunity for the UK to build a profitable AI chip design industry in one of the largest markets in the world.”
The CST report recommends support for a sovereign UK AI chip design industry including increasing the number of chip designers to 7000 by 2030.
However it recommends this is handled by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Department for Education, both of which have been well aware of the deficit in semiconductor designs over the last decade. The response has been the doctoral training centres that produce 50 to 100 candidates a year.
It also recommends DSIT and DfE should consider how to expand investment in training and skills for optoelectronics, in particular through the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC).
It sees military applications as key, following the UK government’s purchase of the optoelectronic fab in Durham from Coherent earlier this year. The CST says DSIT and the ministry of defence (MOD) should set clear strategic objectives on semiconductors to send a strong signal to the UK semiconductor industry on where activity is most useful.
Yet again a report recommends that the government should coordinate investment through the entire innovation pipeline to support growth of the UK AI chip industry to boost the number of chip designers, with the UK’s semiconductor infrastructure providing SME chip companies and academics with affordable and timely access to facilities. This was one of the key recommendations of the report into pilot lines and part of the planned National Semiconductor Centre.
The report also recommends government departments explore UK access to the leading-edge technology required by UK startups, despite the existence of many multiproject wafer (MPW) programmes across Europe, particularly through imec and Europractice IC, and globally.