Wales
Cardiff & South Wales
Make compound semiconductors where the fabs are, and be on a mountain by six.
Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation
The place
South Wales holds something rare: a working compound semiconductor cluster, with fabrication capacity, research capability and a supply chain in the same corridor. Around it sit fintech and insurance operations in Cardiff, medical technology, and one of the UK's more established creative production sectors.
Cardiff is a small, sociable capital. The Brecon Beacons are forty minutes north and the Gower coast an hour west.
- A small capital city with a large sporting culture
- Semiconductor fabrication in the valleys corridor
- Coal and steel inheritance turning into materials and energy work
- Mountains and coast within an hour in two directions
- Welsh language visible and increasingly spoken
Why Cardiff & South Wales?
Make compound semiconductors where the fabs are, and be on a mountain by six.
- Compound semiconductor fabrication and research concentrated in one corridor.
- Fintech, insurance and financial operations employment in Cardiff.
- Medical technology and clinical research linked to the health service.
- Creative and broadcast production with established studio capacity.
- Housing costs well below England's major cities, with the Beacons and Gower nearby.
Venture capital in Wales is thin, and public support through Welsh Government and the Development Bank of Wales does much of the heavy lifting.
What's happening here
Britain is building, and a lot of it is here.
Each item below is a real programme, institution or development with a named source. UKIZ does not publish claims it cannot point at.
South Wales hosts the UK's compound semiconductor cluster
Fabrication capacity, research and supply chain are concentrated in the region.
DSIT: UK innovation clusters map ↗
What this place is good at
Strengths, from the canonical record.
- Compound semiconductor design and fabrication
- Materials and metals processing
- Broadcast and screen production
- Clean energy and tidal projects
- Semiconductors
- Advanced Materials
- Creative Industries
- Clean Energy
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Digital Technologies
Government publishes Investment Zone and Freeport designations covering parts of South Wales.