The Spanish government enters the shareholding of Openchip to boost the Catalan microchip project
The executive invests €115M from European funds through the public company SETT
BarcelonaThe Catalan company Openchip, specializing in the design and marketing of high-performance chips, receives a new injection of public funds to boost its project. This Monday, the Barcelona-based company has received 115 million euros from the Spanish government through the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), also known as the central executive's technological SEPI.
According to company sources informed to ARA, the operation – authorized today by the Council of Ministers – will involve the Spanish government entering the shareholding. However, the representation the executive will have within the company is yet to be defined.
The SETT has carried out the operation through the Next Tech initiative, promoted by the Official Credit Institute (ICO) and the Spanish government and financed with European funds within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
In a statement released this Monday, the company emphasizes that the investment will allow Openchip to "accelerate the design of high-performance chips" and achieve better "energy efficiency" for artificial intelligence and other performance computing applications.
Public support
The support of the central executive is added to the loans that the Generalitat has provided over these past months to the project led by Francesc Guim. In two operations, the Catalan government provided up to 35 million euros to the company: in March, the executive granted it 25 million euros, while in June it added another 10 million. This same June, the Catalan executive authorized the conversion of the loans into shares to gain control of 5% of the company.
Although Openchip has not provided details of the exact percentage the Spanish government will control, the operation allows for approximate calculations. Taking into account the injection carried out by the Generalitat, the central executive would end up holding a stake of approximately 16.5%. Similarly, the company would be valued at around 700 million euros for 100% of its shares.
The institutions indicate that the position of the Catalan and Spanish governments "seeks to consolidate a strategic project" for the development of a European semiconductor industry, as well as "the generation of technological knowledge and the creation of qualified employment in the territory".
