Semiconductors
Our Semiconductors Programme is the industry voice for UK semiconductors. We help members shape policy, build connections and turn strengths in chip design, IP and R&D into growth, while helping UK firms access investment in AI hardware. Our focus:
- Capturing the AI hardware opportunity
- Scaling UK semiconductor companies
- Advancing next-generation and semiconductors and converging technologies
Turning world-class UK semiconductor strengths into commercial scale and lasting global leadership.
Semiconductors are the bedrock of AI, compute and the wider deep-tech economy. The UK has world-class strengths in chip design, intellectual property (IP), research and development (R&D) and compound semiconductors. Our Semiconductors programme exists to turn these strengths into commercial scale and lasting global leadership, and to ensure the once-in-a-generation investment now flowing into AI hardware reaches the UK firms best placed to deliver it.
Through the Chips Coalition, run with TechWorks and Tech London Advocates, we convene more than 200 leaders and experts from across the UK semiconductor ecosystem to share insight, surface market opportunities and shape joint advocacy. The Coalition gives the sector a strong, unified voice as the decisions that will define its future are made.
Building on techUK's UK Plan for Chips, our work focuses on three priorities: capturing the AI hardware opportunity, so that government commitments such as the AI Hardware Plan become commercial reality for UK firms; scaling UK semiconductor companies, by connecting growth-stage firms with investors, customers and government and making the case for a funding environment built for hardware timelines; and advancing next-generation semiconductors and technology convergence, where new materials, novel architectures and the likes of photonics and quantum will drive the next performance gains. Skills, international trade and supply-chain resilience run through all three.
This programme sits within techUK's wider Semiconductors work and alongside our activity in AI Innovation, Quantum, Photonics and Frontier Compute, so we can bring together the key technologies driving innovation and investment. Because a chip company's challenges rarely stop at the edge of the semiconductor sector, we also connect members into techUK's scale-up, skills and talent, international and sustainability work, and to the parts of government that matter to them, from HM Treasury on R&D tax relief to the British Business Bank on access to capital.
Make the case
We move semiconductors up the policy agenda, from the National Semiconductor Strategy and AI Hardware Plan to wider industrial policy. Backed by evidence, case studies and policy papers, we build the narrative that puts UK chips at the centre of the AI story.
Convene the ecosystem
We bring the whole value chain together, from seed-stage scale-ups to global firms, chip designers to data centres, and end-users to investors and policymakers. Through our member network and the Chips Coalition, we break down silos and surface market opportunities across the sector.
Shape the agenda
The decisions that will define the UK's semiconductor future, on investment, procurement, policy and partnerships, are being made now. We put members, from start-ups to global firms, in the room with the ministers, officials and investors making them.
Join the programme
Join a community building the foundation of the UK's AI, compute and deep-tech economy. Members can make the case for the sector, connect across the semiconductor value chain and shape the decisions defining its future. Get in touch to find out more.
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Meet the team
Elis Thomas
Programme Manager - Technology & Innovation
Elis joined techUK in December 2023 as a Programme Manager for Tech and Innovation, focusing on Semiconductors and Digital ID. He previously worked at an advocacy group for tech startups, with a regional focus on Wales. This involved policy research on innovation, skills and access to finance. Elis has a Degree in History, and a Masters in Politics and International Relations from the University of Winchester, with a focus on the digitalisation and gamification of armed conflicts.
Rory Daniels
Head - Emerging Tech and Innovation
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the UK Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme. During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022. Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics. Today, Rory leads techUK's five-strong Emerging Technology and Innovation team, working with many of the UK's most innovative tech companies to convene experts and decision-makers, showcase best practice, shape government's thinking, and ensure the UK leads on developing and deploying transformative technologies. The team's main areas of focus are AI Innovation, Quantum, Semiconductors, Robotics, Photonics, Frontier Compute, Innovation Policy, and Technology Convergence. Rory sits on BIST's expert Robotics Advisory Group, hosts techUK's Meet the Innovators video interview series, and chairs techUK's Emerging Tech Leadership Committee, comprising 36 senior leaders from the UK's most exciting tech companies. He also judges the Global Space Awards, sits on the SXSW Pitch Advisory Board, has hosted London Tech Week's Deep Tech Stage, has completed Stanford University's Tech & Entrepreneurship residency, and has given oral evidence in a House of Lords Select Committee. In his spare time, Rory enjoys photography, reading non-fiction (tech, architecture, design & geopolitics), and searching for London's best burger.
Ella Shuter
Junior Programme Manager - Emerging Tech
Ella joined techUK in July 2025 as Junior Programme Manager for Emerging Technologies. In her role, Ella leads the design and delivery of techUK's focus areas, which identify emerging technologies of interest to members and Government. These initiatives seek to showcase industry best practice, champion key UK sectors, and address the challenges and opportunities shaping the development, application, and commercialisation of these technologies. Previous focus areas led by Ella have included photonics, and currently, frontier compute. Ella also supports the day-to-day running of techUK's Emerging Tech and Innovation Policy activity, working to convene industry experts and policymakers to showcase best practice, shape government thinking, and ensure the UK leads on the development and deployment of transformative technologies. Before joining techUK, Ella completed an internship at Digital Catapult, supporting across public affairs, policy and the organisation's programmes. She also has experience working in an MP's Parliamentary and Constituency Office. Ella holds a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Bristol.