One of the large North American telecommunications companies, Cisco Systems, will install a chip design center in Barcelona, in what is the first palpable result of the microelectronics and semiconductors Perte that was launched in May with a public endowment of 12,500 million of euros. In this case, it will be the first semiconductor design center that Cisco opens within the European Union, and the decision comes after months of negotiations between the Spanish government and the North American company.
Cisco already has a data center in Barcelona, and the design plant will land in the same facilities, although the amount of the investment, the number of people employed and the amount of aid it will receive have yet to be specified. These are decisions that have to be closed in the coming weeks and that are in line with the European Union, which has set itself the goal of manufacturing 20% of the world's semiconductors in 2030.
The announcement was made this morning after the meeting held in Moncloa between the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, Chuck Robbins. In reality, it is the culmination of a series of meetings that began at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May when Sánchez met with the semiconductor giants, specifically the CEOs of Cisco, Intel, Micron and Qualcomm. At that time, the Spanish president presented himself with the endorsement of the Perte that his government had just approved that same day to try to convince these companies to invest in Spain.
“It has cost us sweat and tears, it has been like passing an opposition”, indicate Moncloa sources, who add that since Davos meetings with companies have multiplied. With Intel it has not worked at the moment and the company has preferred to invest where it is already positioned, such as in Dresden (Germany) and Grenoble (France); but with Cisco the agreement has been reached.
Three weeks ago, Cisco sent a mission to Spain to explore the terrain. He met with half a dozen ministries, universities and specialists to examine the conditions he offered to establish his design center. The Generalitat has also been involved in the negotiations.
Three were the points that most interested Cisco. On the one hand, the talent that they could find in Spain, the number of engineers available and those who would leave the universities in the near future. In addition, also the facilities that the displaced personnel would have, an area in which the startup law has helped, which gives all kinds of incentives to favor the arrival of qualified foreign personnel.
Another key element has been the Perte for microelectronics and semiconductors, which shows the political will to create a favorable ecosystem for the development of chips and guarantees significant financial support. Remember that it is the Perte with the highest budget.
In addition, the presence of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, a leading international center in supercomputing, has also been decisive in the location.
"Without design there are no chips", point out from the Government that they emphasize that it is one of the three legs of the Perte. In total, the strategic plan allocates 1,330 million euros to promote companies that design semiconductors. Another element is the reinforcement of scientific capacity and the lion's share goes to the construction of manufacturing plants, with 9,350 million euros.
The goal of the Perte chip is for Europe to stop being totally dependent on Asia for the supply of semiconductors. Currently, the European Union manufactures 8% of the world market's chips and has set itself the goal of reaching 20% by 2030. Given that demand is going to double, the effort referred to involves quadrupling current production. That is why all countries are looking for manufacturing plants for their territories. In the Spanish case, the aim is to obtain one or two of these factories; a difficult goal indeed.
