Eindhoven-based Axelera AI is one of five founding members of the European Fabless Semiconductor Association, launched in Brussels on 4 November. The group will represent companies that design chips and outsource manufacturing to EU institutions, connect them with investors and customers and negotiate shared services. Axelera co-founded the association with Quside, Semidynamics, Sipearl and VSORA, with plans to bring together more than fifty fabless companies within three years. Paul de Bot, who previously led TSMC’s European business, will serve as its first president. “Europe now has the fabless startups to compete in this space, but they need scale-up capital and access to customers. The European Union can support this, and the Association gives them the voice to get heard in Brussels,” comments De Bot. “Europe has fabless companies shipping silicon that competes with the best in the world, and public programs deserve part of the credit for getting us here. But sovereignty isn’t a business model. What turns a design company into an industry is customers, and America built its chip industry by being the first buyer of technology that wasn’t yet proven,” says Fabrizio Del Maffeo, co-founder and CEO of Axelera. “Europe is building AI factories, sovereign cloud and public data centers at record speed, and most of the chips inside them are still designed somewhere else,” Del Maffeo continues. “Make European silicon the first purchase order instead of the last, and we won’t be the companies asking for support; we’ll be the companies giving employment and paying taxes here. Fabless Europe gives us one voice to make that case.”