The European Commission supports German state aid for a “unique” facility.
The European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), a new microchip manufacturing plant to be built in Dresden (Saxony). It will be the first to produce the so-called high performance chips in the EU, explained this Tuesday the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during a visit to the plant under construction.
“This new center meets the requirements of the European Chip Law as a pioneering facility of its kind. It will manufacture products that are not present or planned in any other facility throughout Europe. This means that this facility is also eligible for national financial assistance,” he stated. Von der Leyenwho added that the European Commission approveda German measure of 5 billion of euros to support the ESMC in the construction and operation of its plant.
Chips with better performance and lower consumption
The new plant will produce the so-called high-performance chips, they use technology from field effect transistors (FinFET) and allowing the integration of several additional features on a single chip. The chips produced will offer better performance while reducing overall power consumption.
ESMC – a joint venture of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Bosch, Infineon and NXP – is scheduled to operate at full capacity in 2029 and produce 480,000 chips, intended for industrial and automotive applications.
A European formula to reduce dependence on Asia
The measure aims reinforce security of supplyresilience and Europe’s digital sovereignty in semiconductor technologies, in line with the European Chip Law. The Law, which came into force last September, aims to double the bloc’s current 10% share of the global microchip market by 2030. In 2020, around one billion microchips were manufactured worldwide.
Until now, the Chip law has already attracted public and private investment commitments of the order of 115 billion euros, Von der Leyen added.
Sajonia -where the semiconductor industry began in the 1960s- is home to some 2,5000 semiconductor companies and plants, including those of Bosch, Infineon, Globalfoundries y X-FAB. The chips allow technological advances in sectors such as healthcare, cloud, defense and clean energy.
A new Clean Industrial Agreement
Von der Leyen also announced that in her new mandate at the Commission she will take new measures to boost Europe’s industrial competitiveness by creating a European Competitiveness Fund to invest in strategic technologies, also in the field of chips and advanced packaging.
In the first 100 days of the incoming Commission, it will also propose a new Clean Industrial Agreementto guarantee access to cheap energy and raw materials. Additionally, there will be a ‘Capabilities Union’ to ensure that workers receive the training what they need for these jobs.
