The Semiconductor Catapult has launched in the United Kingdom, with a stated remit to reinforce domestic chip-design, prototyping, packaging and skills capacity.

The new centre joins the existing network of Catapult centres operated by Innovate UK, which currently includes nine facilities covering areas from compound semiconductors to high-value manufacturing, digital engineering and connected places. Catapults are not-for-profit bodies, jointly funded by government and industry, that translate academic research into commercial deployment.

What is the Catapult's mandate?

According to the launch announcement, the Semiconductor Catapult will focus on four technical priorities: chip design enablement, compound semiconductors, advanced packaging and power electronics. It will also work on supply-chain mapping and skills development across the UK sector.

The body will not operate a commercial fabrication plant. Instead, it will provide shared infrastructure for early-stage companies, including prototyping equipment, IP access and test and characterisation facilities. UK deep-tech startups currently send most prototypes to Taiwan, South Korea or the United States for back-end qualification, a dependency that adds cost and time to product development cycles.

Why does the UK need its own semiconductor Catapult?

The UK hosts more than 200 semiconductor design companies — including Arm, Graphcore and Imagination Technologies — but operates limited front-end fabrication capacity. The 2021 global chip shortage cut UK automotive output by an estimated 100,000 vehicles and exposed the sector's heavy dependence on overseas foundries, primarily Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung.

The launch sits within the broader UK National Semiconductor Strategy, published in May 2023, which committed up to £1 billion over ten years to bolster the domestic industry. Strategy documents identified automotive, AI, defence and clean energy as priority end-markets the UK supply chain must serve.

The global semiconductor market reached approximately $527 billion in 2023 according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) figures, and McKinsey forecasts $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030. The UK accounts for under 1% of global manufacturing capacity but a disproportionate share of design IP, particularly in processor architectures.

What will the technical focus look like in practice?

In chip design enablement, the Catapult will support work on RISC-V open instruction-set architectures and on chiplet-based designs that combine multiple die in a single package.

In compound semiconductors — materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) — UK firms including IQE, Plessey and Cambridge GaN Devices already hold significant market positions. The Catapult will look to scale this base.

In advanced packaging, the goal is to bring back-end assembly, test and 3D integration work to UK soil. In power electronics, the focus sits on EV drivetrains and grid applications.

What happens next?

Initial Catapult activities will include a national skills audit, a UK fab capacity inventory and calls for collaborative R&D projects in advanced packaging. Leadership appointments and detailed operating budgets are expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

The strategy's first formal review is scheduled for 2026. Performance benchmarks are likely to include growth in UK design IP revenue, the number of operational UK fabs and the domestic share of back-end packaging activity. With most advanced packaging still performed in East Asia, the Catapult faces a narrow window to demonstrate measurable supply-chain gains before that review.