By Jon Robinson
Pragmatic Semiconductor is set to become the UK’s largest chip manufacturer by volume following the opening of a major line in the North East of England.
The Cambridge-based manufacturer of flexible circuits will create 500 highly-skilled jobs over five years after the line was officially opened by The Princess Royal today.
The 300mm semiconductor wafer fabrication line (fab) at Pragmatic Park is a first in the UK and comes after Pragmatic Semiconductor secured a £182m funding boost at the end of 2023.
The funding and new line will enable the business to overtake Nexperia Newport as the UK’s largest microchip plant.
The Welsh site was recently taken over in a £144m deal by a New York-listed group.
The funding deal in December 2023 valued Pragmatic Semiconductor, which was set up in 2010, at around £500m.
The investment round was led by fund manager M&G Investments and UK Infrastructure Bank, the state-owned development bank.
Other participants included Northern Gritstone, tech start-up investor Latitude, British Patient Capital and Prosperity7 Ventures, which is part of Saudi energy group Aramco.
Pragmatic Semiconductor is hoping to build eight manufacturing lines in the UK over the next five years, each capable of producing billions of chips a year at full capacity.
Chief executive David Moore said: “Today’s official opening marks a key milestone in Pragmatic’s growth trajectory and for the UK on the global semiconductor stage.
“I am incredibly proud of what the team has achieved and the ambition of our mission to enable item level intelligence in over a trillion sustainable, smart items over the next decade.
“Such intelligence at scale has the power to accelerate the digital transformation across industries.
“Sustainability is at the very core of our technology and extends to how FlexICs enable our customers to further drive innovations and pathways through their products and services towards global net zero goals.”
