EU Launches €525 Million Chip Design Platform for Startups

Up to €16 million per startup

The scheme targets startups, small and medium-sized businesses and researchers. It pools access to design software, intellectual property blocks and manufacturing capacity, which are the most expensive items in the trade. Early-stage companies can receive up to €100,000 for a feasibility prototype, while more advanced ones can get up to €16 million to bring a chip to market.

"The European design platform gives our chip start-ups and SMEs the support they need," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's Executive Vice-President for technological sovereignty.

Twenty startups are already following the platform's support programmes, and the European network of competence centres will guide applications. The consortium running the project is led by Belgium's imec, with the CEA reportedly representing France. The work is expected to run until the end of 2028.

A weak starting position

European designers account for less than 1% of global revenue in chip design, a figure given by the Commission itself. In 2025, the European Court of Auditors called the goal of a 20% share of the global chip market by 2030 "very unlikely", with the trajectory topping out at 11.7%.

Brussels has since gone back to the drawing board with the Chips Act 2.0, proposed on 3 June. The design platform is one of the first concrete tools aimed at the weakest link in Europe's semiconductor chain, where small companies have long struggled to afford the software and licences needed to compete.