EU plans €15bn public-private R&D partnership on microchips

Partnership is just part of plan to quadruple EU microchip production by 2030

The European Commission wants to devote €11 billion of public funding for the research, design and manufacturing of microchips in the EU, to reduce the vulnerability of the bloc’s supply chains to chip shortages like the one that has been stifling manufacturing of products around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A European Chips Act was unveiled by the Commission on 8 February in a bid to quadruple EU production of microchips by 2030, from about 10 per cent today to about 20 per cent, in the context of an expected doubling of global production. It seeks to build on the bloc’s existing research strengths, and scale up its design and manufacturing capabilities.