Europe wants to make its own chips again. The price tag: €120 billion, a figure that makes the bloc’s original investment plans look like a down payment.
The push comes as the EU finds itself producing somewhere between 8% and 10% of the world’s semiconductors. The goal is to hit 20% of global production by 2030.
From €43B to €120B: the ambition keeps growing
The European Chips Act, which took effect in September 2023, originally aimed to mobilize €43 billion in combined public and private investment. As of now, over €80 billion in chip-related investments have been announced across the bloc, nearly doubling the original target. But the EU has apparently concluded that even €80 billion isn’t enough, with the €120 billion figure representing the scale of capital needed to genuinely restart competitive local chip production.
The European Commission is already planning an overhaul that would grant it direct cross-border investment authority, a structural reform that signals Brussels knows the current framework isn’t cutting it.
