The European Commission put the “European Chips Act” on the table in early February to boost Europe’s infrastructure with chip factories.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clarified the EU’s ambition to produce more chips locally. Under the heading “European Chips Act,” she plans to put forward a proposal in early February to have at least 20 percent of global chip production in Europe by 2030.
“Today our stocks are managed by a handful of producers outside Europe. We cannot afford this dependence and uncertainty,” von der Leyen said. “We need to build supply chains that we can trust, without single points of failure.”
The three main chip factories, TSMC, Samsung and UMC, have no presence in Europe. These three combined have a 77 percent global market share. GlobalFoundries, number four worldwide, which includes a chip factory in Dresden, Germany, accounts for 6 percent market share. Intel also has a European plant in Ireland.
Intel prime candidate
The European Chips Act should enable billions in investment from local governments to placate chip producers. According to von der Leyen, chip production will double by 2030, and European chip capacity should quadruple as a result.
Already last year Intel announced that it would invest 80 billion euros in new chip factories in Europe. In total, the maximum would be eight new factories. Building new, state-of-the-art chip factories involves sky-high costs. Intel is therefore counting on support from the EU, in the form of subsidies. Both the European Union and Intel want the new chip factories to compete with the East.
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