Labour's industrial strategy allocates £19m to establish a UK semiconductor centre as a single point of contact for global firms and governments to engage with the UK semiconductor sector. The centre aims to help ambitious firms scale up, form new partnerships and strengthen the UK's role in global supply chains to grow the economy. Global demand for AI acceleration chips is accelerating, creating a race for more efficient, faster, lower-power designs. The UK needs a workforce of chip designers, particularly in optoelectronics, to provide high-speed interconnects that link large numbers of GPUs for AI inference and training. AI chips are forecast to be the largest growth area in the chip industry for the next decade. The government's 50-point AI plan includes growth zones but remains quiet on UK-designed AI chips.
In June, Labour unveiled its industrial strategy, which includes £19m of funding to establish a UK semiconductor centre that will serve as a single point of contact for global firms and governments to engage with the UK semiconductor sector. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said the centre would help ambitious firms scale up, form new partnerships and strengthen the UK's role in global supply chains - helping to grow the economy.
But while the UK starts to build a viable semiconductor sector, the world is moving ahead at an incredible pace due to the growth of AI and the need for AI acceleration chips. The CST believes the UK needs to develop a workforce of chip designers, especially in the area of optoelectronics, which it predicts will be essential to provide the high-speed interconnects required to enable the connectivity of large numbers of graphics processing units (GPUs) to support advances in AI inference and training.
AI chips are forecast to be the largest growth area in the chip industry for the next decade. The authors of the Council for Science and Technology's Advice on building a sovereign AI chip design industry in the UK analysis noted that there are disproportionate opportunities for businesses - and nations - with the right capabilities, given that six of the seven largest companies in the world are investing billions where they perceive low-hanging fruit for more efficient, faster, lower power AI chips.
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