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The Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND) in Germany and its Dutch counterpart, the National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI), have announced a €40 million collaborative initiative to accelerate European AI chip design. Dubbed the AI-Native Chip Design Challenge, this joint-funding programme is the first of its kind between SPRIND and NADI. Its primary goal is to reduce chip development timelines from years to weeks and bolster Europe's sovereignty in artificial intelligence.

Jano Costard, Head of Challenges at SPRIND, stated that the launch demonstrates Europe's commitment to leveraging collaboration and innovation. The challenge will span two 20-month stages, with Stage 1 selecting seven teams to receive €2.6 million each and Stage 2 shortlisting three teams to receive €7 million each. In addition to financial support, participating teams will receive technical and commercial guidance to bring their chip designs to market.

The Challenge aims to harness AI-driven methods in chip design, utilizing AI models and reinforcement-learning agents to autonomously tackle complex optimization problems. Ultimately, the programme seeks to produce production-ready chip designs for high-performance AI inference and training, enhancing energy efficiency, scalability, and reducing inference costs.

NADI, launched in September 2026, operates on the ARPA model previously employed by SPRIND since 2019 and by the UK's ARIA since 2022. The Dutch Economic Affairs Minister, Heleen Herbert, inaugurated NADI during Prinsjesdag, the Netherlands' annual Budget Day. NADI is backed by a €500 million government allocation and functions as an early customer to help innovations reach the market faster.

The agency was established following an open letter from universities, medical centers, investors, and major companies, including Philips and NXP, with support from Peter Wennink, the former CEO of ASML.

SPRIND's Challenges model has allocated over €100 million to pan-European initiatives this year, and it has supported NADI's formation. SPRIND's collaboration with NADI is expected to further refine their expertise and contribute to Europe's technological sovereignty in AI chip design. With Europe currently reliant on the US and China for semiconductor supply, the AI-Native Chip Design Challenge represents a crucial step towards reducing dependency and advancing Europe's AI ambitions.