Imec Says AI Scaling Needs More Orchestration Across Research, Design, Manufacturing

At the ITF World 2026 conference, imec CEO Patrick Vandenameele used the analogy of an orchestra to emphasize the complexity of scaling AI, highlighting the need for coordination across research, desi... Read original →

Exponential AI compute demands are forcing the semiconductor industry to shift from isolated breakthroughs to full-stack orchestration. Below 3nm, EUV and advanced packaging alone aren’t enough—if EDA flows, chiplet I/O standards, and process nodes aren’t co-optimized, yield collapse and cost overruns become inevitable. Geopolitical fragmentation amplifies supply chain risks: while U.S.-EU reshoring boosts resilience, it inflates compliance overhead, especially for smaller IP vendors locked out of walled ecosystems. NVIDIA and Microsoft are racing to vertically integrate, whereas Intel and TSMC (Taiwan, China) back open standards like UCIe to counter proprietary stacks. Within 18 months, design houses lacking cross-layer co-design capabilities will lose relevance. Meanwhile, imec’s Neuropixels 3.0 demonstrates how CMOS-MEMS convergence creates defensible moats beyond traditional scaling—signaling that system-level innovation efficiency, not just transistor density, will define semiconductor leadership.