New ‘Chips Act’ aims to stop European countries from competing with each other and help the bloc compete globally.
The European Union aims to turbocharge its microchips industry to catch up with rivals like the U.S. and China via a new “Chips Act,” Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
The initiative would seek to link up research and design in different countries, coordinate funding among EU states and jointly create a “state of the art ecosystem” of microchip companies, the European Commission president said during her State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg.
More than a dozen European countries are putting together an industrial investment plan called an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), which would use funding from the EU’s pandemic recovery funding and long-term research funding as well as national and private funds.
Officials in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Brussels are talking to chips giant Intel to help it set up a new European manufacturing site, potentially worth €80 billion, in the next decade. Earlier this year, the Commission launched two industrial alliances to help companies coordinate investments in microchips and cloud technologies. It is also considering a major acquisition of U.K.-based chips firm Arm by U.S. giant Nvidia — a move the Commission fears would further strengthen the U.S.’s grip on the sector if completed
Read the press release by following this link: