The EU has agreed on the ‘Chips Act’ regulation to double its global market share in semiconductors by 2030. The act aims to support large-scale capacity building, ensure supply security and resilience, and mobilise €43 billion ($47 billion) in investments, including €3.3 billion ($3.6 billion) from the EU budget.
The EU Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on the ‘Chips Act’, a regulation designed to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem. The agreement is expected to create the conditions for an industrial base that can double the EU’s global market share in semiconductors from 10% to at least 20% by 2030.
The Chips Act has three pillars: the “Chips for Europe Initiative” to support large-scale technological capacity building, a framework to ensure security of supply and resilience, and a monitoring and crisis response system to anticipate supply shortages and provide responses in case of crisis.
The Chips for Europe Initiative is expected to mobilise €43 billion ($47 billion) in public and private investments, with €3.3 billion ($3.6 billion) coming from the EU budget.
The compromise reached reinforces the competences of the Chips Joint Undertaking, which will be responsible for the selection of the centres of excellence, as part of its work program. The final compromise also widens the scope of the so-called “First-of-a-kind” facilities to include those producing equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing. In addition, design centres that significantly enhance the Union’s capabilities in innovative chip design may receive a European label of “design centre of excellence,” which will be granted by the Commission.
The agreement also emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and the protection of intellectual property rights for the creation of an ecosystem for semiconductors. A new semiconductor objective is created within the Digital Europe Programme, which will support capacity building in the Chips sector, and funds are also mobilized within the research framework Horizon Europe, amounting to a total of €3.3 billion ($3.6 billion) for the Chips for Europe Initiative. The financing solution was found within the limits of the existing inter-institutional agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework and comes on top of resources already allocated to similar objectives within the MFF and through the digital strand in the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
