The Chips Act 2.0 proposal outlines a series of strategic projects ranging from a sub-2-nanometer fab and European AI processors to memory manufacturing and advanced chip design.
Despite placing greater emphasis on boosting demand in its next Chips Act, the EU hasn’t abandoned lofty ambitions on the supply side. On the contrary, the Chips for Europe initiative 2.0 envisions not only a leading-edge logic semiconductor manufacturing facility, but also advanced packaging and memory plants and a full-fledged IC design ecosystem.
In the first Chips Act, the EU bet on a build-it-and-they-will-come strategy, greenlighting large-scale state support for a leading-edge fab despite European demand for such chips being low. In the next installment, put forward by the European Commission and now subject to negotiations, Brussels takes a multi-pronged approach. The ‘business case’ for domestic semiconductor manufacturing is propped up by also supporting European AI gigafactories and taking other measures that promote the adoption of leading-edge semiconductors by European industry.
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