Mediaboss Marketing

The European Union has agreed a landmark plan to boost its chip industry.

The initiative, dubbed the European Chips Act, seeks to help the bloc compete with the U.S. and Asia on tech, and secure control over a critical bit of technology behind the worlds electronics products and devices.

The EU Parliament and 27 member statesreached a deal on the legislationon Tuesday. In a statement, they said the new rules would aim to double the EUs global market share in semiconductors from 10% to 20% by 2030.

This agreement is of utmost importance for the green and digital transition while securing the EUs resilience in turbulent times, Ebba Busch, the Swedish energy minister, said Tuesday.

The new rules represent a real revolution for Europe in the key sector of semiconductors.

The European Chips Act is a massive, 43-billion-euro ($47 billion) package of public and private investments that aims to secure its supply chains, avert shortages of semiconductors in the future, and promote investment into the industry.

The Chips Act has three main aims:

The EU Chips Act will invest 6.2 billion euros to promote industrialization of innovative technologies, establish competence centers for skill development, and ensure access to finance, the European Commission, the E.U.s executive arm,said in a statement.

It will also incentivize investments in manufacturing facilities and provide a framework for integrated production facilities and open EU foundries for security of supply.

Member states will also coordinate to monitor supply and forecast any shortages, the commission said. Since first announcing the plan last year, the EU has already attracted between 90 billion and 100 billion euros of public and private commitments for industrial deployment.

Chips are effectively the brains of electronic devices. Theyre used in everything from smartphones to gaming consoles but also products you wouldnt expect them in, like cars and refrigerators.

Semiconductors, and the mainly East Asia-based supply chain behind them, have become athorny issue for world governmentsafter a global shortage led to supply problems for major automakers and electronics manufacturers.

TheCovid-19 pandemicexposed an overreliance on manufacturers from Taiwan and China for semiconductor components. That dependency has become fraughtwith tensions between China and Taiwan on the rise.

TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, is by far the largest producer of microchips. Its chipmaking prowess is the envy of many developed Western nations, which are taking measures to boost domestic production of chips.

Europe has been seeking to control more of its supply chain to reduce its reliance on foreign market players. The move is part of a push from the EU to achieve digital sovereignty, which refers to the idea that they have more control over critical technologies.

A swift implementation of todays agreement will transform; our dependency into market leadership; our vulnerability into sovereignty; our expenditure into investment, Busch said. The Chips act puts Europe in the first line of cutting-edge technologies which are essential for our green and digital transitions.

At the same time, the bloc has realized it cant achieve this production ramp up alone there are no European firms that can manufacture leading-edge chips.

The EU wants to attract funding from foreign companies into its market. U.S. chipmaking giantIntelis among the companies upping its investments in Europe, and hascommitted over 33 billion eurosto boost chipmaking across the EU.

In the U.K., chip firms have beenthreatening to leave the U.K.due to a lack of similar support from the government.

Europe is home to a titan in the semiconductor space Dutch firmASML. ASMLs extreme ultravioletlithography machines are used to etch microscopic features into silicon wafers. But the company doesnt produce its own chips.

Officials want more semiconductors to be developed within Europe, so they dont face the risk of a big shortage, or threats to national security.

Here is the original post:
Europe approves its $47 billion answer to Bidens CHIPS Act - NBC News