The European Chips Act is the EU’s strategic plan to strengthen its ability to design and produce semiconductors – crucial components found in everything from smartphones to cars.
It is part of the EU’s policy response to global challenges in semiconductor technologies: with Europe heavily reliant on suppliers from other regions, the Chips Act aims to aims to ensure the EU’s resilience and technological sovereignty in semiconductor technologies and applications. In just over 1.5 years since it came into force, the Chips Act has delivered substantial progress to ensure Europe can meet its semiconductor needs and increase our capacity to innovate and produce semiconductors in Europe.
Under Pillar I, the Chips for Europe Initiative has already committed over 85% of its budget, connecting top-tier research with industrial applications. The Chips Joint Undertaking is supporting five pilot lines with a total of EUR 3.7 billion in European and national funding. All Member States and Norway have now established competence centres in their territories or are close to doing so. These centres are key to provide businesses (especially SMEs and start-ups) with essential resources to develop semiconductor solutions, including support, training, and access to large infrastructure facilities established under the Chips Act. Moreover, SMEs and start-ups will be able to apply for using the design platform by the end of this year. In addition, six cutting-edge projects have just been selected as part of the EUR 200 million EU investment in quantum chips. These projects will accelerate breakthroughs in quantum applications such as computing, communication, and sensing. Under the Chips Fund, the European Innovation Council and selected partners are already providing equity support to semiconductor start-ups.
Under Pillar II, the Chips Act has already catalysed more than EUR 80 billion in investments in chip manufacturing capacity, thereby contributing to increasing the EU’s market share vis-à-vis competitors. The Commission has already approved seven first-of-a-kind State aid decisions already totalling more than EUR 31.5 billion of public and private investment. This comes in addition to the Commission’s approval of an Important Project of Common European Interest (‘IPCEI’) to support research, innovation and the first industrial deployment of microelectronics and communication technologies across the value chain with over EUR 21 billion total public and private investment. Decisions on the status of Integrated Production Facilities (IPFs) and Open EU Foundries (OEFs) are expected before the summer. In addition to the first-of-a-kind and the IPCEI, a number of additional projects are still under development or in the decision pipeline.
Under Pillar III, the European Semiconductor Board has been actively steering progress—coordinating national efforts and monitoring supply chain resilience. Member States have already provided information to identify “key market actors” (feeding into the Commission’s ongoing strategic mapping of the sector), but also to assess economic security elements related to the semiconductor supply chain in Europe. Supply chain monitoring has advanced considerably through analysis of the EU’s position in the global semiconductor landscape. All this will contribute to a much better understanding of risks related to Europe’s supply chains and possible mitigation measures that could be considered to address identified risks.
Source: European Commission | Shaping Europe’s digital future | News & views (https://tinyurl.com/bdddn4at)