The American multinational chose Barcelona to open the first European chip center (next-generation semiconductor design), in the former Ca l’Alier factory.
The center will start operating with a team of engineers, seeking to grow the workforce in the coming years through partnerships with members of the Spanish semiconductor ecosystem.
In this way, the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, said that the Catalan capital is consolidating its position as the technological capital of Spain.
The Barcelona design center will be dedicated to the design and prototyping of key semiconductor devices for the following sectors:
- Automotive
- Aerospace
- Sanitary equipment
- Telecommunications
- Energy production
- Industrial automation
In the long term, Cisco aims to accelerate the digitization of Spain, with chips playing a key role as the backbone of digital technologies.
Europe’s first chip center in Barcelona
The investment that is about to be made is part of the PERTE of microchips, a recovery project promoted by the government.
The project will have a major public investment capable of mobilizing around 12 billion euros.
In this way, Spain is becoming an important player in meeting the European Union’s goal of reaching 20% of the global chip market by 2030.
The PERTE of microchips has already been approved and has reforms, a roadmap and incentives to attract talent in this field and consolidate the sector in Spain.
The Government, for its part, pointed out that the project has the support of Acció, the competitiveness agency of the Department of Business and Labor.
He also recalled recent investments along the lines of Cisco’s, such as the recently announced investment by U.S. semiconductor company Monolithic Power Systems.
The company will start up its main R&D center in Europe in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, as well as Intel’s project at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, BSC-CNS, with the aim of opening a microchip laboratory.
What is the PERTE of microchips?
The acronym refers to the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation, PERTE, of microelectronics and semiconductors.
The first call for applications was launched last October with great success, as many companies were and still are interested in the program, which has a large budget of 12.25 billion euros.
In this context, there is great interest from the business, scientific and executive worlds in mobilizing this public investment.
Initially, the Government plans to allocate 1.15 billion euros for the PERTE Chip 2023, of which one third (350 million) will be allocated to aid to companies, private companies and autonomous communities.
Through the PERTE project, Spain is competing in Europe to attract investment and the best human talent.
