IN Brief:
- Space Forge has signed a system-wide research agreement supporting its first US semiconductor-materials manufacturing and processing capability.
- Initial activity will use Texas A&M cleanroom, nanofabrication, material-processing, and characterisation infrastructure.
- The partnership connects terrestrial semiconductor development with Space Forge’s programme for producing advanced materials in orbit.
Space Forge has selected The Texas A&M University System as the base for its first US semiconductor-materials manufacturing and processing capability, beginning with a system-wide research agreement covering joint development work. The Welsh advanced-materials company will initially use existing semiconductor infrastructure before expanding the collaboration over the following 12 to 24 months.
The agreement applies across the Texas A&M System and establishes a framework for future research projects. Space Forge will work with the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute and AggieFab Nanofabrication Facility, using cleanrooms, material-processing equipment, characterisation capability, and research expertise as it develops its US semiconductor operation.
Initial work will concentrate on terrestrial material growth, characterisation, and processing. That gives Space Forge a route to develop and qualify semiconductor materials in Texas while continuing the separate orbital-manufacturing programme on which its longer-term technology proposition is based.
Space Forge is developing compound-semiconductor substrates using the microgravity and vacuum conditions available in space. Its approach centres on producing high-quality crystalline materials in orbit before returning them to Earth for processing and use in conventional semiconductor supply chains rather than manufacturing finished integrated circuits in space.
The company has already demonstrated part of that process through ForgeStar-1, its free-flying in-space manufacturing platform. The mission has generated plasma in orbit, establishing that the controlled conditions required for gas-phase materials work can be produced aboard the spacecraft. Further development still has to connect those orbital processes with repeatable material growth, recovery, terrestrial processing, and customer qualification.
The Texas agreement addresses the terrestrial part of that chain. Materials returned from orbit still require measurement, processing, device development, and comparison against established substrates before semiconductor manufacturers can determine whether their crystal properties justify a new supply route. Access to existing cleanroom and analytical infrastructure allows that work to begin without Space Forge first replicating an entire semiconductor research facility.
AggieFab provides nanofabrication, material-processing, and characterisation capability, while the wider Texas A&M semiconductor programme is expanding its own infrastructure. A semiconductor institute building under construction at the RELLIS campus is designed around a reconfigurable ballroom cleanroom, a full sub-fabrication level, lithography rooms, and flexible research laboratories.
The Texas A&M System approved a total project budget of $205.5 million for the wider Semiconductor Institute infrastructure and equipment programme in February. The institute building is approximately 73,000 square feet, with substantial completion scheduled for January 2028, while semiconductor tools and equipment are being procured separately from the main building contract.
That investment provides Space Forge with a growing semiconductor ecosystem rather than a standalone university laboratory. The company already has its US headquarters on Florida’s Space Coast, while its UK operations include its Cardiff satellite-manufacturing hub and a Swansea materials-development centre focused on semiconductor growth, processing, and pilot-line activity.
The Texas collaboration therefore adds another stage rather than replacing those facilities. Orbital production remains the distinctive part of Space Forge’s model, but commercial semiconductor materials ultimately have to pass through familiar terrestrial requirements including process compatibility, characterisation, repeatability, device fabrication, and qualification.
The master research agreement gives Space Forge access to that infrastructure while leaving several commercial milestones ahead. The next 12 to 24 months are expected to broaden the work into joint research across the Texas A&M System, with the more decisive evidence coming from materials that can move successfully from orbital processing through terrestrial semiconductor qualification and into customer applications.
