On January 14th, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Innovation Strategy until 2030, which, among other things, includes the launch of chip manufacturing in Ukraine.
According to Forbes, the Ministry of Digital Transformation is currently considering at least two scenarios for launching chip production in Ukraine: licensing turnkey technology or engaging a strategic partner on commercial terms. In the first case, the state involves a licensor company responsible for building the plant, setting up the equipment, and launching the pilot line, but retains a controlling stake and prioritizes covering its own needs; in the second case, it involves a partner through a state tender and receives a minority share, which allows for quota-based production orders according to its own interests.
Initially, the discussion is about producing chips of sizes 180, 130, and 110 nm—these are not the most advanced technologies (Intel and TSMC are working on 1.8 nm and 4 nm technologies), but they are quite suitable for meeting the needs of at least three local markets: the military-industrial complex, agriculture, and automotive.
“Smaller semiconductors at 10 or 7 nm are used in smartphones, data centers, and for artificial intelligence. This is a competitive niche, and the cost of building a factory is tens of billions of dollars,” explains Oleksandr Grudanov, Senior Director of R&D at Silvaco and a member of the working group at the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
As a partner for developing chip programs, the strategy authors suggest the American company Silvaco Group, while the business model could be a Multi-Project Wafer—a microelectronics manufacturing variant that involves placing different types of integrated circuits from various developers (or customers) on a single semiconductor wafer. The document states that initial plans involve producing up to 1000 such wafers per month.
According to Grudanov, the advantage of having our own chip production in Ukraine would be that we can add our own overlay to the existing technology and produce specialized chips—for example, more resistant to electronic warfare.
Under the licensing model, building a chip manufacturing plant in Ukraine could cost up to $1 billion, but a certain amount will also have to be paid separately for licensing the technology.
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