Europe has no chip alternative for AI companies at the moment. The chips AI companies purchase at this point come from abroad, mainly from the US and China. OpenChip is to develop this alternative. Belgium is also getting involved in this story with a new branch in Ghent that focuses on software development.
The new branch in Belgium will be OpenChip’s fifth. Otherwise, it is already spread across Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain. That growth is enormous for a company that has only been around for one year.
Other than that, OpenChip does not yet have a chip it can use to attract the interest of AI companies. “The OpenChip chip will be on the market by early 2027 at the latest,” Steven Latré, the person responsible for OpenChip’s AI department in Ghent, told VRT NWS.
Ambition for the world stage
The investments in OpenChip do not yet guarantee results, but there appears to be a lot of faith in the European alternative. The investments seem possible due to European support from the IPCEI ME/CT approved in 2023. The European Commission then agreed to release €8.1 billion for microelectronics and communication technologies projects. OpenChip’s website refers to this initiative.
The Ghent department will not participate in the development of the OpenChip chip. Instead, it will focus on developments that are necessary when the chip arrives. “In Ghent, we are already starting to develop AI software,” Latré indicates.
In addition to high faith, the ambitions of OpenChip are also remarkable. “We have the ambition to become a world player. The race is not over yet. The recent developments of the Chinese DeepSeek show that substantial catch-up is possible,” Latré states.
Belgium research country
According to Latré, OpenChip’s interest in Belgium for its establishment in software development is partly explained by the fact that Belgium is known in the chip world as a country for research. Indeed, the Leuven-based Imec is an important player in developing new chips and optimising associated production processes.