Canadian company Neuron IP to invest €10M to establish its first European R&D center in Barcelona

​​​​​​​The Canadian company Neuron IP has announced the establishment of its first European R&D center in Barcelona, dedicated to the semiconductor sector. This €10 million investment is expected to create more than 30 jobs initially, with plans to expand further.

The announcement was made during a working meeting held this Wednesday with the Secretary of Business and Competitiveness and CEO of Catalonia Trade & Investment, Jaume Baró; the President & CEO of Neuron IP, Saman Sadr; and the vice-rector of Transfer, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the UPC University- Barcelona Tech, Climent Molins.

Neuron IP’s project has been supported by Catalonia Trade & Investment, Catalonia's agency for business competitiveness, which provides guidance and assistance to companies establishing operations in Barcelona-Catalonia.

“Barcelona’s strong reputation for technological innovation, coupled with its infrastructure, talent, and ecosystem, provides the ideal environment for sustainable growth”

Saman Sadr, President & CEO of NEURON IP

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The R&D center, located at building K2M at the UPC North Campus, is poised to become Neuron IP's primary hub outside North America. It will focus on the design of silicon interfaces and chiplet technologies—innovations enabling the integration of multiple semiconductor chips into a single advanced package.

These technologies are critical for applications in rapidly growing fields such as Artificial Intelligence, high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, automotive, and wireless communication infrastructure. The facility will also include a testing laboratory, further solidifying its status as Neuron IP’s flagship R&D site in Europe.

For the CEO of Catalonia Trade & Investment, Jaume Baró, projects such as Neuron IP’s enable "Catalonia to scale up its position in the field of semiconductors, because the fact that an international company chooses Barcelona places our country among the leading territories in the value chain of this industry". According to Baró, "promoting the semiconductor industry is one of the Government's main priorities, being a fundamental sector for the economic development of the country and which allows the creation of high-quality jobs".

Saman Sadr, President & CEO of NEURON IP, expressed the company's commitment to its European expansion: “We are making a significant investment to establish operations in Europe, starting with Barcelona as a key hub and planning further strategic growth across Spain. Barcelona’s strong reputation for technological innovation, coupled with its infrastructure, talent, and ecosystem, provides the ideal environment for sustainable growth. The city offers a unique synergy between academia, industry, and government support, which we highly value.”

Sadr also emphasized Neuron IP’s focus on talent development: “We plan to build and train a specialized design team, expecting to create 30 positions in our first year, with ambitions to expand to over 100 in the coming years. Our goal is to foster a company culture that promotes growth opportunities while contributing to the semiconductor engineering ecosystem in Catalonia, Spain and beyond. We are confident in Catalonia’s pool of engineering talent, from promising young professionals to seasoned industry experts.”

In collaboration with the UPC University, NEURON IP is actively recruiting highly qualified talent specializing in areas such as silicon interfaces, chiplet design, advanced packaging, and validation. “This partnership underscores Neuron IP’s commitment to nurturing local expertise”, said Sadr.

The vice-rector of Transfer, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the UPC, Climent Molins, said that "the consolidation of a research and design office by the Neuron IP at the North Campus of the UPC is a substantial contribution to the Catalan ecosystem of semiconductors and microelectronics. The company will maintain a close relationship with the interuniversity master's degree in Semiconductor Engineering and Microelectronic Design in the strategic framework of integrated circuits in high-tech packaging, as well as with the research groups of the UPC, the UAB and the CNM. The company will make a decisive contribution to the creation of talent in the strategic field of semiconductors”.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Neuron IP is one of North America’s fastest-growing engineering companies. With the opening of its Barcelona R&D center, the company now has a presence in both North America and the European Union.

Semiconductors in Catalonia

This November, Catalonia assumed the vice-presidency of the European Semiconductor Regions Alliance (ESRA), which will be presided by the Italian region of Piedmont during the next year. This is the first step for Catalonia before receiving the presidency of the entity in 2026.

ESRA's objective is to enable the deployment of policies to boost semiconductors in Europe within the framework of the European Chips Law, which aims to provide the continent with greater technological sovereignty and productive capacity. Catalan participation in this entity is articulated through the Department of Business and Labour, through the General Directorate of Industry and ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment.

Catalonia is currently one of the most dynamic regions of the continent in terms of semiconductors. In fact, last May 21st, the Semiconductors and Chips Alliance of Catalonia, made up of more than 50 companies and entities, was launched.

In total, according to ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment data, there are already 260 agents who are part of this semiconductor ecosystem, including companies, entities, technology centers and research institutes. Together, all these agents generate a business volume of 302 million euros and a pool of talent with more than 4,600 highly qualified professionals.

In addition, Catalonia is the 3rd region of the European Union that has attracted the most foreign investment projects in this area since the announcement of the European Chips Law in 2022.