Broadcom Signals $1 Billion Investment In Spain

US chipmaker Broadcom has delivered some welcome news, as European countries seek to bolster their domestic chip making capabilities.

Reuters reported that Broadcom’s CEO Charlie Kawwas said on late Thursday that his firm will invest in a European Union-funded programme to develop a semiconductor industry in Spain.

The Spanish government, it should be remembered, had in May 2022 officially approved a plan to spend 12.25 billion euros ($13.12 billion or £10.4bn) on the semiconductor industry by 2027.

Spanish investment

Essentially, Spain is to finance the investment via the European Union’s Coronavirus pandemic relief fund, which was made available to EU countries to provide aid in the recovery from the impact of Covid-19.

Spain’s decision to try and encourage chip firms into the country, came after a global shortage of computer chips during the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Excited to announce our decision to invest in Spain’s semiconductor ecosystem under their semiconductor support program,” Kawwas tweeted.

The project in which Broadcom would be involved could be worth $1 billion, the Spanish economy ministry told Reuters in an emailed statement. Broadcom did not say how much it would invest.

That the project would include the construction of “large-scale back-end semiconductors facilities unique in Europe”, the ministry reportedly said, adding no location had been picked yet.

Spain has already seen Cisco Systems announce it is planning to open a new chip design centre in the northeastern Spanish city of Barcelona.

European aid

Spain is not the only European country seeking to attract more chip facilities to its shores.

To solve the global chip crisis, the European Commission in February 2022 had unveiled a multi-billion euro ‘Chips Act’ in to bolster the continent’s competitiveness in the sector.

The EC plan had first been announced by Ursula von der Leyen in 2021, and in March 2021 the European Union under its 2030 Digital Compass plan revealed the bloc wanted to produce at least 20 percent of the world’s cutting-edge semiconductors by the end of the decade.