Chips are like the strings of a piano, like the wood of a violin. They are the elements with which we make musical instruments used to play concerts and symphonies. To put on a great concert, you need musicians to play the instruments, good musical composition, and a conductor.
Industrial and consumer products require material components that, with good design and development, materialize into goods and services that respond to needs and contribute to improving comfort and well-being.
It is encouraging for me to write today about a collective effort, the ‘Valencia Silicon Forum,’ and it is also a relief to see that the political class seems to respect and support it, which is a joy (knock on wood).
There are many niche and emerging opportunities where Spain can jump on the market.
For years, we’ve heard about the importance of semiconductors: the chips that are everywhere. The post-pandemic period hit the European industry in the face with a crisis due to the lack of chips. In 2022, Europe and Spain launched ambitious initiatives to recover lost ground, going from 8% to 20% of the global market. In 2025, we’re stuck at 10% because, although growth has been experienced, it has also accelerated in other regions.
Europe fell asleep after the 1990s, when its semiconductor industry represented an impressive 44% of the world’s share. In Spain, the microelectronics industry also declined in the 1990s and no progress was made toward advanced technologies. These were the years in which the government declared that “the best industrial policy is one that doesn’t exist.”
A Window of Hope
Over the past 30 years, our universities have continued to train professionals and conduct research in electronic and photonic technologies, achieving global leadership in some fields. At the same time, graduating engineers and scientists have migrated to other latitudes and have amply demonstrated their first-class professional capabilities. This global journey has taught many professionals good business practices. Some have reached global executive positions in their later years, while others have returned to Spain to lead and support emerging projects.
A dazzling youth forum from Valencia
Last week, the second “Valencia Silicon Forum” was held, supported at its inauguration by local, regional, and national authorities, a commendable example of what must be done and further developed. Mayor Maria José Catalá was the host and in her message welcomed the more than 400 in-person and remote attendees from the world of industry, academia, development centers, and European public administration: the creative land of Sorolla will shine its light on this strategic sector, the mayor promised.
Forty internationally renowned speakers came from Taiwan (TSMC’s human resources director), the United States, Germany (the former minister of Lower Saxony), France, Belgium (a director at the European Commission), the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, and, of course, all of Spain.
The forum presented the “VLC City Chip Award” to Ray Stata, founder of Analog Devices and an MIT engineer. The company was founded in Boston in 1965 and has 24,000 employees, revenue exceeding $10 billion and a gross profit per employee of €250,000. In 2005, Analog Devices opened a development center in Valencia with 120 employees.
Business Opportunities
The semiconductor sector has a long and highly complex value chain. It ranges from the manufacturing of base materials (pure silicon and others with “complicated” names) and circuit design, to the manufacturing of nanometer-sized chips close to an atom, and the encapsulation and interconnection of chips with three-dimensional geometries. These activities are supported by suppliers of machinery (some equipment costs $400 million per unit), specialty supplies, and chip design platforms, which in turn draw on previous designs (patents and intellectual property).
There are many niche and emerging opportunities (for example, in photonics) where Spain can jump on this growing and promising market. It is a highly productive industry, that coveted growth benchmark in which we are so far behind. Consider that our leading distribution company in Spain has a remarkable gross margin of around €85,000 per employee, far from the gross margin of over €600,000 per employee at NVIDIA.
And above all, there are great opportunities in the use of semiconductors in our industries and activities of all kinds: sensors, integrated AI, healthcare, tourism, defense, aerospace, and 5G, 6G, and satellite communications are some examples. We need entrepreneurs, equally creative and advanced in other areas, who come forward and understand what chips can do for their products and services. It is a great challenge for all of us in this sector. We are here available and willing.
Opinion piece by ADOLFO MONTALVO (Las Provincias)
