German industry calls for extension of EU chip law – Bits&Chips
15:55
Siemens, Infineon and other German industry leaders want to expand the reach and funding of EU chip law. The group believes that the Chips Act focuses too much on advanced semiconductors and not enough on mature nodes. “The promotion of sizes down to seven nanometers envisaged in the European chip law does not meet the needs of the industry for chips”, Iris Plögler of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The European Chips Act indeed allows the co-financing of all types of semiconductor technology projects. It’s up to member states to decide which one to fund – the Chips Act only loosens state aid rules. Both Infineon and Bosch are receiving state aid to expand their manufacturing operations. However, the German government spent a much larger amount of money to support the construction of a state-of-the-art factory in Magdeburg.
Also pointing out that large sums of money are being mobilized for the semiconductor industry in other parts of the world, triggering fierce competition for fabs, the German electronics industry believes that funding the chips will not be enough to reach the aspired European market share of 20% by 2030.
