EU to invest €100 billion in semiconductor production

The European Union (EU) is planning to invest over €100 billion into the domestic production of semiconductors to provide the continent with autonomy in this field.

European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, has disclosed this plan during an interview given to Germany's RTL TV channel on August 10.

"More than 68 projects in 19 countries (EU) will allow us to regain our competitiveness, as well as our strategic autonomy," said the commissioner, adding, that "more than €100 billion of investments have been directed to European territory".

At the end of July, the EU Council approved a regulation known as the "Chips Act" which aims to boost Europe’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications and strengthen Europe’s technological leadership in the field as well as attract investments and promote research.

The new regulation aims to attract €43 billion of public and private investment (€3.3 billion stemming from the EU budget) to double the EU’s share of the global semiconductor market from 10 per cent today to at least 20 per cent by 2030.

Breton further noted during his interview, that the EU had great capacity for the production of these technologies 30 years ago but lost its market competitiveness to Asia and the US. "We can’t go on living with some naivety saying it’s only the market that wins in the end. We also have to promote these very heavy investments", he stated.

The commissioner's interview comes just after Taiwanese chip giant TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), producer of approximately two-thirds of the world's semiconductors,  has given the green light to set up its first European factory in the German city of Dresden, a project worth more than €10 billion which will strengthen the continent in this strategic industrial sector.

European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton has welcomed this decision during an interview given to the French RTL on August 10.

"This is the culmination of the entire industrial strategy that I have been leading for 4 years as European Commissioner. We have made sure that Europe takes back its destiny in hand and to have a production capacity on European territory of the microprocessors we need," he said.