The European Commission, in line with the goals of the European Chips Act, has approved €41.5 million in State aid for Ephos, an Italian start-up in the microelectronics sector, to build a cutting-edge facility for the production of photonic chips on glass wafers in the Milan area. This will be the first plant of its kind within the European Union—a strategic project aimed at strengthening the EU’s technological autonomy in the semiconductor sector. The initiative has been supported from its early stages by the Ministry for Enterprise, which will now finance it through the National Microelectronics Fund. The project will enable the development of an innovative production process for advanced photonic chips destined for high-tech applications such as data centres and quantum computing. The investment aims to bolster the EU’s leadership in the semiconductor sector, contributing to technological sovereignty and the resilience of supply chains.