Why Europe is hungry for chips
Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC agreed Tuesday on a multibillion-dollar deal to build a plant in Germany, part of a push to put Europe at the centre of the global semiconductor industry.
The United States and China are embroiled in a fierce rivalry to dominate the chip industry, and Europe is investing billions to keep up.
Semiconductors are the tiny components found in every electronic device, from children's toys and smartphones to electric cars and sophisticated weapons.
The Covid pandemic and subsequent border shutdowns caused a shortage of chips and brought large parts of the tech industry to a standstill in 2020 and 2021.
The crisis jolted governments into action, with the United States and China taking increasingly stiff measures to secure supply chains.
Europe is proposing a law to bolster investment in the industry.
The so-called Chips Act, which is winding its way through the EU's legislative processes, aims to unlock 43 billion euros ($49 billion) in investment from public and private entities.
The goal is for the EU to capture 20 percent of global chipmaking by 2030, which would involve quadrupling its current output.
So far in Europe, Germany is way ahead.
The investment from TSMC came two months after Berlin brokered a deal with Intel to build a 32-billion-euro plant.
Germany also closed massive deals with the US firm Wolfspeed and the homegrown company Infineon earlier this year.
The Intel deal, though, sparked some controversy.
Estimated costs for the Intel plant almost doubled, and sources told AFP the government had promised 9.9 billion euros of public money in subsidies.
France also announced in June that it would invest 2.9 billion euros in a plant run by European multinational STMicroelectronics and the US company
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