Battle for EU's chip sovereignty receives support from Oudenaarde
Thema Foundries joins Europe's quest for chip independence from Belgium, following the example of Eindhoven and Enschede.
Published on September 3, 2025
Herwig van Hove (screenshot from video Jose Pozo)
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When BelGaN collapsed in 2024, 440 jobs vanished overnight in the Flemish town of Oudenaarde. The once-promising gallium nitride foundry seemed destined to become a monument to missed opportunity. Instead, the site is now the centerpiece of a bold revival: Thema Foundries, a new venture led by entrepreneur and investor Herwig van Hove, is transforming the 10,000 m² cleanroom into what could become Europe’s largest dedicated photonic chip hub. With these plans, Van Hove joins Europe’s push for photonic chip sovereignty, an effort already visible in places like Eindhoven and Twente.
“We intend in the next 18 months to invest significant money to build an open-source, full-service photonic foundry, uniquely dedicated to photonics,” Van Hove told Jose Pozo, Chief Technology Officer at Optica. “What happened with AI and data centers was a strong catalyst. Photonics can help solve the energy problem they are causing.”
VIDEO: Watch the whole interview Jose Poze had with Herwig van Hove.
Read the transcription of the interview here.
Anchored in Belgium, linked to Europe
Van Hove stresses that Belgium is a natural home for such an initiative. “Under the influence of Roel Baets at Ghent University and Hugo Thienpont at VUB, Belgium really anchored a place globally in photonics R&D. Add to that imec, and you have a deep bench of experienced people.”
This echoes the €200 million investment announcement reported last week: Thema Foundries could create up to 500 jobs and provide Europe with a critical volume production site for photonic integrated circuits (PICs), directly addressing the supply chain vulnerabilities outlined in the EU Chips Act and initiatives like PhotonDelta in the Netherlands.
A wider European mosaic
Thema’s arrival comes alongside two other major projects: That of New Origin in Enschede (focusing on the production of silicon nitride photonic chips by the end of 2026), and one in Eindhoven's High Tech Campus, where SMART Photonics joined forces with TNO and the Eindhoven University of Technology to focus on scaling indium phosphide chips. The total investment of €153 million for the Eindhoven initiative is being funded by PhotonDelta, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and TNO itself, among others.
“Collaboration will be the name of the game,” Van Hove said. “Several of those parties have already reached out to us. If we want to participate and lead in this photonic revolution as European players, we will need to join forces.”
With New Origin working with silicon nitride and Eindhoven with indium phosphide, Van Hove hasn't disclosed which technology the Oudenaarde foundry will focus on. When asked how Thema Foundries will differ from these other foundries, Van Hove only mentions scale as a differentiator. "I think the difference in our approach to what we are trying to do is certainly scale. The site in Oudenaarde is pretty large, with significant cleanrooms, making it future-proof as volumes ramp up."
SMART Photonics CEO Johan Feenstra says collaboration is possible. "Of course, we are willing and interested in collaborating, especially when it comes to European parties and a collaboration that improves the entire ecosystem." Still, this should support the whole system, he says. "Duplication of an Indium Phosphite foundry does not seem to me to add value to the ecosystem, but within the photonics industry, multiple platforms will coexist. Additionally, there are opportunities to integrate these different platforms, and a need exists for specialized areas, such as module and system engineering. In such a case, I certainly see opportunities for SMART to supply the Indium Phosphite PICs for this purpose."
Timing is everything - and talent
Europe has often been at the forefront of photonics research, but has lagged behind in scaling. “Silicon photonics was invented in Europe, indium phosphide circuits were pioneered in Delft and Eindhoven,” Pozo reminded Van Hove during the interview. Yet volume production went overseas. This time, Van Hove believes, the timing is right: “Interestingly, when I asked another visionary founder about lessons learned, he smiled and said: You couldn’t get your timing more perfect if you tried. Hopefully he’s right.”
Global tensions around semiconductors are further pushing Europe to secure its own fabs. “Competition on chip production is getting further deglobalized,” Van Hove said. “As a European hub, we have the obligation to anticipate that trend and vertically integrate the ecosystem all the way to the source.”
Beyond infrastructure and finance, the real challenge will be talent. Thema Foundries wants to hire extensively across engineering and physics disciplines. But so will the other initiatives. Van Hove has a message for the next generation: “I would encourage people to have the courage to take risks. If you’re at the top of your game, you’ll get offers from very large players. But there’s a lot of upside in joining European startups that are at the cusp of a new story.”
Vital
Photonic chips are vital for AI, telecom, sensing, agriculture, and healthcare, promising faster, more energy-efficient data handling at a time when AI compute demand threatens to overwhelm Europe’s power grids.
If the initiatives succeed, the Low Countries' rebound story could mark a turning point in Europe’s industrial sovereignty. “We see this as another building block in a very successful ecosystem,” Van Hove said. “Belgium and the Netherlands have both been at the forefront of photonics. Now we have the chance to win as a team.”