Mr White described Pragmatic’s US expansion as an “obvious” choice “both because of the customer base we already have there, the size of that market, and the incentives available under the CHIPS Act.”
US officials are handing out billions of dollars in subsidies under Joe Biden’s $280bn (£217bn) CHIPS Act to convince global chip manufacturers to move their operations into the US.
British ministers have pledged £1bn to the semiconductor industry over the next decade, a move that one industry boss labelled “flaccid” when the ten-year plan was unveiled in May.
Pragmatic’s fundraising drive, first reported by The Telegraph earlier this year, seeks more than £100m to fuel the company’s expansion into the US.
“We’re not going to be raising 10 times that, but we’ll be raising more than that in this round,” Mr White said.
Investment bank Lazard is advising on the drive, which would almost double the £148m raised by the microchip design company since its founding in 2010.
Current backers of the Cambridge-based company include the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, British chip behemoth Arm and the CIA’s In-Q-Tel investment arm.
It comes after Pragmatic’s founder was appointed to a government advisory panel on microchip strategy last week.
The Semiconductor Advisory Panel was formed almost two months after ministers promised to launch the body at the London Tech Week event held in June.
Industry sources expressed confusion over why the panel, which is chaired by business minister Paul Scully, took so long to set up.
