Overview

• The Council for Science and Technology advises the UK to focus on designing, not fabricating, AI chips and sets a goal of 50 new products over five years.
• The analysis flags the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan as quiet on UK-designed hardware, warning of reliance on GPUs from a single dominant foreign supplier.
• Optoelectronics is identified as the priority within compound semiconductors to deliver high-speed interconnects for AI accelerators, with the CST suggesting trade-offs elsewhere.
• The report quantifies a workforce shortfall of 7,000 chip designers over five years, rising to 12,000 to meet its target, and urges updated university curricula and access to design services via partners such as IMEC, Muse and TSMC programs.
• The CST calls for coordinated DSIT–MoD investment, use of the NSSIF for dual-use opportunities, and notes Labour’s £19m semiconductor centre as a step as AP reports on new US licensing arrangements affecting Nvidia and AMD sales to China.