FAMES

FAMES is an EU Chips Act pilot-line for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, inaugurated in January 2026. Like NanoIC, it forms part of the Chips Act's pilot-line infrastructure strategy — building open-access pre-production facilities where European organisations can test and prototype advanced chip designs .

FAMES operates within the EU's broader semiconductor research and innovation ecosystem, which includes imec in Belgium, CEA-Leti in France, Fraunhofer in Germany, and the Italian National Institute of Photonics. The pilot-line model allows European chip designers and research institutions to access advanced manufacturing processes without building their own fabs, reducing the barrier to entry for European fabless chip design companies.

The FAMES inauguration in January 2026 and the NanoIC approval in February 2026 together represent the visible execution track of the EU Chips Act after the mega-fab collapses. €700m for NanoIC and €211m for Italian photonics (approved April 2026) are real investments, but they serve a different strategic purpose than the leading-edge logic production the Chips Act was originally designed to deliver .