Backed by the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank and M&G, Pragmatic Semiconductor is using a modular, low-capital model to scale flexible chip production at a pace Asia and the US would struggle to match.
On the Meadowfield industrial estate outside Durham, a 55,000 sq ft warehouse that spent a decade gathering dust, and the droppings of nesting seagulls, has been transformed into one of the more intriguing bets in British manufacturing. The gulls have been seen off by a hawk called Buzz; the drains have been cleared; and inside what was once a PVC piping factory, the UK’s most ambitious volume chipmaker is now in full production.
Pragmatic Semiconductor is twelve months into shipping its first commercial orders, the culmination of 14 years of work that began as a Cambridge science project. By year-end, the company expects billions of its ultra-thin, 300mm flexible chips to be leaving the Durham site bound for customers in pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics and fast-moving consumer goods. At that point, management believes Pragmatic will be the UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturer by volume.
The timing is pointed. The European Commission is this week expected to publish a refreshed Chips Act, the latest leg of Brussels’ attempt to wean the bloc off American and Asian silicon by backing home-grown semiconductor capacity. Westminster, too, has put domestic chipmaking near the top of its modern industrial strategy, with advanced manufacturing earmarked as a sector in which Britain has what ministers call a “genuine right to win”.
Amy Ingham, 1st June 2026, Business Matters
Read the full article…
https://bmmagazine.co.uk/in-business/pragmatic-semiconductor-durham-uk-chipmaker-scaling-up
Pragmatic Semiconductor: The British Chipmaker Quietly Building a Global Challenger in County Durham
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