The EU intends to spend 145 billion euros to develop advanced semiconductor processes, but manufacturers are lacking in interest

Under the current global chip shortage, major countries and regions in the world are actively developing. Among them, the European Union also hopes to get a share of the advanced manufacturing process. However, in response to the European Union’s ambitions to actively develop advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, relevant chip manufacturers within the European Union do not seem to appreciate their faces and point out that there is no market for the European Union to develop advanced manufacturing processes.

According to foreign media reports, in order to develop advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, 17 European Union countries have proposed plans in 2020 to invest 145 billion euros in the development of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. According to the EU's plan, it is hoped that this investment will achieve two major goals. One is to double the output of chips in 2030 and increase the market share from the current 10% to 20%. In addition, it is planning to produce more sophisticated chips, that is, hope to produce 5nm to 2nm process chips by 2030.

At present, the EU's own semiconductor ecosystem is still strong. In addition to the world-renowned IMEC Belgian Microelectronics Center and ASML lithography equipment manufacturers, there are also many global semiconductor manufacturers, such as ST STMicroelectronics and Infineon Ling, NXP NXP, etc. And the foundry giant GF also has fabs in Dresden, Germany, and Intel has fabs in Ireland. These conditions seem to make the EU's development of advanced semiconductor processes more handy.

However, for the EU's ambitious plan, no local chip companies in the EU are willing to come forward to support it. Among them, two heavyweight semiconductor companies, including STMicroelectronics and Infineon, do not intend to participate. Among them, Infineon’s explanation is very simple. What is the starting point for the EU to develop advanced semiconductor processes from 2nm to 5nm? Who in the market would consider setting up a fab in the EU to produce advanced process chips?

According to the explanations of STMicroelectronics and Infineon, although advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes are very important, if you want to build advanced process wafer fabs, the first thing to solve is that the EU can really have advanced process technology from 2nm to 5nm. , That is, the laboratory technology can be further commercialized. Furthermore, it is necessary to solve the problem of the source of customers, and these problems are actually the core problems faced by countries that actively want to develop advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes.

The reason why STMicroelectronics and Infineon are opposed to the European Union in developing advanced semiconductor processes is that the chips that the European Union's own chip companies are good at and need, almost do not require advanced processes such as 2 nanometers to 5 nanometers. The core business of EU chip companies flags mainly lies in automotive chips and power management chips. Most of these chips still stay on 90nm, 65nm, 55nm, 40nm, 28nm and other process nodes. Therefore, when market demand hardly needs advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, these manufacturers are naturally lacking in interest in the relevant plans proposed by the European Union.