EU Chips Act triggers further €22bn investment into European semiconductor value chain
€8.1bn will come through EU grants and a further €13.7bn are hoped to be triggered from private investments
The European Commission has approved €8.1bn (£6.95bn) of EU grants into the semiconductor supply chain.
The EU hopes that the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on microelectronics and communication technologies will also trigger a further €13.7bn (£11.8bn) of private investments, adding up to around €22bn (£18.9bn) total investment.
This IPCEI will fund 68 projects from 56 companies from 19 Member States (plus Norway), involving 600 indirect partners.
It claims it could potentially create more than 8,700 direct jobs in Europe.
The EU expects this IPCEI to expand industrial presence across the supply chain in Europe, investing in industrial capacities on all the chokepoints of the supply chain: materials including wafers, equipment, design and design automation tools, different process technologies, manufacturing, packaging, assembly and tests, and systems integration.
Under the IPCEI, companies - including many SMEs - will develop innovative device technology including dedicated processors, AI chips, programmable integrated circuits (FPGAs), embedded memory, chiplets, optical interconnects as well as equipment and materials, in support of the development of innovative applications for the communications, automotive, industrial automation and consumer IoT sectors as well as AI, edge-computing and other markets.
The funding will also be invested in:
- Accelerating the development of a European supply chain for components needed for communications equipment as well as radar and space applications.
- Preparing Europe for the roll-out of electric vehicles, notably to enable design and manufacturing capacity for next-generation devices and substrates for power management as well as the environmental sensors, radars and in-vehicle computers needed for highly automated driving functions.
- Developing next-generation AI chips, combining strengths in both analog and digital, low-power computing and new generations of optical sensors will open the door to new markets in edge-AI, industrial automation and beyond.