# A survey of 500 silicon-photonics firms lands the same month as the EU Chips Act 2.0, and its message cuts against the usual one: what stalls Europe's deep tech is not grant money but manufacturing access. Two thirds cannot get a research chip onto a fab line to scale it.
EUACC page: https://www.euacc.ai/briefing/pulse-9
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## Public content

**issue:** 9
**type:** pulse
**date range:** 19 Jun 2026
**tagline:** A survey of 500 silicon-photonics firms lands the same month as the EU Chips Act 2.0, and its message cuts against the usual one: what stalls Europe's deep tech is not grant money but manufacturing access. Two thirds cannot get a research chip onto a fab line to scale it.
**published at:** 2026-06-21
**sections:** 
  -     **body:** On **19 June**, the **CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre** published a survey of **500 silicon-photonics decision-makers** across the **UK, US, Netherlands, Germany and Spain**. The headline finding: **66%** say **manufacturing access** is the primary barrier to commercialisation, and **59%** say their country lacks the infrastructure to move a chip from research to product.

The cost is concrete. **31%** report delayed product roadmaps, at an average loss of **$2.7 million**, and nearly half say faster prototyping would pull commercial revenue forward by **7 to 12 months**. Tellingly, **54%** of Dutch, German and Spanish respondents judge the current **EU Chips Joint Undertaking** insufficient.
    **emoji:** 🔬
    **label:** DEEP TECH
    **heading:** The bottleneck is the fab, not the grant
  -     **body:** The timing is pointed: the warning lands the same month Brussels tabled the **Chips Act 2.0**. But Europe's real instrument is already running. **PIXEurope**, the fifth **Chips JU pilot line**, is a roughly **EUR 380 million** distributed fab coordinated by **ICFO in Barcelona**, spanning **20 institutions across 11 countries**, with an InP line at **Eindhoven** built for **6-inch wafer** production.

For a deep-tech founder, the lesson is that the binding constraint is shared infrastructure, not the cheque. A photonics or chip company should be mapping a route into a **pilot line** as early as it maps its grant stack. Capital without fab access does not ship a product.
    **emoji:** 🇪🇺
    **label:** WHY IT MATTERS
    **heading:** Where Europe's answer actually sits

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