EU Chips Act to attract EUR 100bn of private investment?
European Commission officials believe the EU Chips Act can attract huge inwards investment and propel the continent's semiconductor space to global prominence by 2030.
Europe is a long way behind the US, Korea, Japan and China when it comes to chip design and manufacturing. But like its competitors, it is launching grants and subsidies to support its domestic supply chain.
The EUR 43 billion EU Chips Act was established with the intention of doubling the EU’s global market share in semiconductors from 10 percent to at least 20 percent by 2030.
Earlier this week, EC official Thomas Skordas said the European Chips Act has led to "promises for investments of the order of EUR 100 billion to expand the manufacturing capacity within the EU by 2030." So far firms including Intel and TSMC have announced plans to build plants in Germany at a cost of more than EUR 30 billion this year.
The EU has also confirmed that research labs in Europe are set to receive EUR 2.5 billion to pursue the development of advanced semiconductors. The funding will be used to set up a pilot line, called NanoIC, to develop and test new components including sub-2nm chips. Belgium's Imec will lead the project.
Other participating labs include CEA-Leti of France, Fraunhofer of Germany, VTT of Finland, CSSNT of Romania, and the Tyndall Institute of Ireland.
