A successful strategy

BarcelonaEurope does not have its own chip technology. Therefore, it is dependent on the technology of the United States or China, but the latter is not an option for industrial purposes for geopolitical reasons. Existing technologies, and in particular programming codes, are the property of private companies, Nvidia, Intel, and others. Using their code means losing technological independence and depending on them commercially and technically. It is, therefore, not an option.A few years ago, the University of Berkeley developed an open-source code with universal access, RISC-V. Europe is promoting it through the DARE program because it eliminates proprietary limitations. It is likely that for this reason RISC-V will become the universal code of the EU, and perhaps the world, in the short term, Brazil, India, the EU, except for the USA and China.Openchip is a public-private company that has a project of approximately 500 million euros and seven years of duration on the RISC-V code. It was created by a private partner, GTD, specialized in the field of embedded software, rockets and satellites of the ESA – the European Space Agency –, and the public entity BSC – Barcelona Supercomputing Center –, a successful creation of doctor Mateo Valero, eminent professor at the UPC. Openchip's industrial objective is to design and prototype general-purpose chips, from the most sophisticated, HPC (high performance computing), for supercomputers, to standard ones, for industrial use. Openchip will be a fablesscompany, without a factory, which will subcontract its manufacturing to third parties based on the prototypes.The European Commission has recognised the project as important and classified it as an IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest). It has contributed 111 million in non-reimbursable funds on the grounds that the initial risk of the project made it unfeasible to obtain private funds in the capital market to finance it. The Generalitat, understanding the high technical and industrial value of the project, has provided significant funds as a loan. This stage has been completed with success after 24 months, and the first chip, BER10, is already available.The management team comes in part from Intel. The CEO is a Catalan with twenty years of experience in the US. The company has gathered 350 engineers with delegations in six EU member states – Ireland, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Spain – in just two years. The conclusion is that the first stage of the project has been successfully completed in record time and, therefore, the foundations for future development are solid.The company is carrying out a capital increase of approximately 200 million euros, approximately 50% public and 50% private. The private partner can be an investment fund or ACS, a leading industrial company, which will also be a client, because it has an important data center project. The public partner is SETT, an investment company of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The increase will cover the capital needs until Openchip becomes profitable, once the investments are amortized, and will cover the financial needs in the next two years that the project requires. Openchip must be capable of designing chips that compete with all market products, even those of the commercial leader Nvidia; not yet, but within four or five years.This expansion will consolidate the project if, as planned, the strategic direction that GTD and BSC have maintained until now at Openchip is maintained for the new reference partners, the new private investor and SETT as a public partner. The course should not be changed, the current one should be maintained. That is, the general and non-restrictive capacity to generate company products, technological excellence, diversification and, ultimately, the will to establish itself as the first chip design and prototyping company in Southern Europe. This strategic objective that has brought Openchip to where it is today must not be lost: in the EU among the leaders in the chip design sector.The fact that the developed technology is based on an open and public code like RISC-V has generated for Openchip the possibility of having worldwide clients without limitations of use or application. It has closed an agreement with a Japanese company with such a solid and deep-rooted technical tradition as NEC, to produce the chips it will need in the future for its processors, which will become the axis of its industrial activity.This project, now a company, is a paradigmatic example of a series of technical and industrial successes. a) Adopt the open and free RISC-V code for development. b) Select suitable and experienced personnel, consistent in their abilities and specialities. c) Select a top-level management team, with the appropriate technical, commercial, and industrial capabilities. d) Have an industrial partner with market experience, GTD, and a public one, BSC, with adequate technological experience, who can transfer knowledge without the long periods needed to do so. e) Develop a local capacity, Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain, but with a European scope. f) Know how to take advantage of European funds for technical development and, ultimately, position oneself appropriately in the market, both in the commercial and product scope as well as in the industrial one.If all this continues to happen, Openchip will be a leader in chips in Europe, covering a European deficiency that is both technical and structural. More capital and more resources will be needed, but success attracts. It will not be difficult to achieve, once the success of the first prototypes currently under development has been demonstrated. The occasion is this, achieved through acumen, knowledge, and also luck. This is why the opportunity is singular and unique. We must know how to take advantage of it and continue this chain of successes. Now is a critical moment that must be overcome. There is no reason to doubt it, but we must point out what has been done well to continue doing it the same way. Success lies in continuing what has been done for more than two years.