Thierry Breton is on a mission. The tech-savvy EU commissioner with a long career in the computer and IT industry wants to make Europe clearly visible again on the map of the chip industry in the coming years. Because especially with the latest developments, the so-called state-of-the-art chips, the old continent has meanwhile become a blank spot on the map of the semiconductor industry. Breton wants to change that. On Friday he toured the Dresden semiconductor industry, Europe's largest chip location. Manufacturers such as Infineon, Bosch and Globalfoundries produce here. The metropolis in Saxony is also in the sights of the American Intel Group and the Taiwanese TSMC Group: Both are exploring several locations in Europe for the construction of new chip factories, local conditions,national subsidies and pan-European options for subsidies for their investments.

Stephan Finsterbusch

Editor in business.

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In Europe there is currently no more significant domestic manufacturer of processors, and also no local manufacturers of memory or graphics chips who can play at the forefront in the respective industry leagues.

No chips of the currently most modern generations with structure sizes of less than 10, 7 or 5 nanometers are produced here.

At best, building blocks with structures of 22 nanometers roll off the production line in local factories.

In view of today's chip dependency on industries such as automotive, chemical and pharmaceuticals, the white spot of Europe is no longer a minor matter, says Guido Hertel from the Kearney consultancy.

The bottlenecks on the world's semiconductor markets, which have persisted for a year, have already slowed down numerous industries in Europe and cost German, French and Italian companies billions of euros in sales.

Europe must act.

Subsidies of more than 120 billion euros

“America, and especially Europe, has lost a lot of ground to Asia in a sector as important as semiconductors,” said Greg Slater, Vice President of Intel. “We're good, but we could be better - and above all faster.” For several months now, Intel has been aiming to build a so-called leading edge mega-fab in Europe. It consists of eight to ten individual factories in which the latest generation of chips are built.

The first of these plants have already been installed in Asia. America is currently building. As part of a Japanese-Taiwanese joint venture, Tokyo is just beginning to bend over the intricacies of planning such a giant factory. In Breton’s opinion, Europe cannot be inferior. Governments of almost all large industrialized countries want to promote the construction of new chip factories with subsidies totaling more than 120 billion euros. 

Margrethe Vestager, EU competition commissioner, warns of the dangers that companies are playing off the states here.

"We have to avoid a subsidy race," she said.

Because the risk is high that the taxpayers will foot the bill.

On the other hand, said Yvonne Keil, board member of the Silicon Saxony e.

V. gathered Dresden chip companies: Europe needs a binding commitment for public co-financing in order to secure investments.