Indra Group becomes majority partner of SPARC Foundry
SPARC Foundry and its main investors—Indra Group, SETT and Vigo Activo—formalised the investment agreement for their future photonic chip plant in Vigo before a notary public on Monday.
The event took place at the facilities of the Vigo Free Trade Zone Consortium and was attended by Abel Caballero, mayor of Vigo; Javier Ponce, general director of the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT); Héctor Álvarez, director of strategy at Indra Group; David Regades, delegate of the Vigo Free Trade Zone; and Francisco Díaz-Otero, CEO of SPARC.
The signing of this strategic agreement formalises the support given by the Government on 17 June 2025, when the Council of Ministers approved an investment of 17.2 million euros channelled through the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) within the framework of the PERTE Chip.
With today's event, the project promoters, together with the main investors, are continuing with the development of the future photonic chip factory in Vigo thanks to a multi-party governance structure that will accelerate its start-up and enable the facility to be fully operational in the second half of 2027.
SPARC Foundry will operate under a ‘one-stop-shop’ model as a pure-play foundry, with the capacity to produce 20,000 wafers per year in a state-of-the-art clean room, using III-V materials (InP, GaAs, GaN) for applications in telecommunications, automotive, quantum computing and defence. The project will create 200 highly skilled direct jobs and around 550 indirect jobs, boosting the Spanish technology sector and strengthening European technological sovereignty.
Statements by the signatories
"With this agreement, we are consolidating the project and guaranteeing its continuity. We are laying the foundations to make Vigo and Spain a European benchmark in photonics. SPARC is an example of a partnership between the public and private sectors,‘ said Francisco Díaz-Otero, CEO of SPARC Foundry.
’This operation allows the Indra Group to enter the design and manufacture of gallium nitride-based chips, a critical base element for defence and aerospace systems. In this way, we are taking a new step towards contributing to the strategic autonomy of Spain and Europe and boosting industrial capabilities and employment through a public-private partnership model,‘ said Héctor Álvarez, Director of Strategy at Indra Group.
’The SETT uses financial instruments to address the new realities of the technology sector and economic sectors demanding digital technologies, based on the public-private partnership model. With SETT, the Spanish government wants to lead the digital revolution, a historic transformation for the evolution of Spain's economic model. This signing is yet another example of how we are advancing towards this goal. Today we are launching a future public-private production capacity for highly flexible semiconductors," said Javier Ponce, general manager of SETT.
David Regades, State Delegate for the Free Zone, pointed out that ‘this investment agreement is the best example of public-private collaboration, the result of a process lasting many months that we have promoted from the Consortium to companies and administrations’. Regades also referred to the work on the plant: ‘This is the beginning of what will be a real technological revolution for the Vigo area in this new industrial sector.’
Next steps
This Monday also saw the publication of the tender for the construction of the 4,000 m² warehouse in the Valladares Technology Park, with work scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025 and commissioning in the second half of 2027.
About SPARC Foundry
SPARC Foundry is the first III-V photonic semiconductor manufacturing plant in Spain, born from a public-private partnership that brings together SETT, the Vigo Free Trade Zone Consortium, Vigo Activo, Indra Group, the University of Vigo and private capital. Using advanced materials such as InP, GaAs and GaN, SPARC applies dual technology with applications in both civil (telecommunications, automotive, quantum computing, medicine) and defence sectors, with the aim of strengthening European technological sovereignty through the production of high-end integrated photonic wafers.