Berlin welcomed, Tuesday, February 8, the initiative announced by the European Commission the same day to support the microelectronics industry through a public investment plan to the tune of 42 billion euros. The aim is to double Europe’s market share in semiconductors from 10% to 20% by 2030.
Germany, which is currently paying a high price for the shortage of semiconductors affecting its automotive industry, wants to take advantage of this plan to attract investment in a sector where it considers itself well placed. The competence center in Dresden, Saxony, known as “Silicon Saxony” since the early 2000s, is the first European site devoted to microelectronics.
Berlin hopes in particular to win the favor of the giants of the sector, the Taiwanese TSMC and the American Intel, in talks with the government to invest in their production tool in Europe. In an interview with the German daily Handelsblatt, February 4Intel boss Pat Gelsinger announced that he would take ” in the coming months “ its long-awaited decision on the location of its future European factories.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the daily specifies, Germany would have a good chance of being chosen by Intel… in the same way as France and Italy, Belgium or the Netherlands, which enjoy a long tradition in microelectronics. It all depends on the subsidies that governments will be willing to grant to the projects of the American boss, who hopes for at least 8 billion euros.
Technical competitiveness
If Intel decides for Germany, it would be a new winning move for the pole of Dresden, in Saxony. In June 2021, the city had already celebrated a major investment: the German group Bosch, the largest automotive supplier in the world, inaugurated its new semiconductor factory there, the cornerstone of its strategy in the autonomous car. The investment, of 1 billion euros, heavily subsidized, is the largest in the history of the group.
The plant is the first of its kind built in Germany for twenty years. In the region, 70,000 people now work in the sector, within 2,500 companies, active across the entire value chain. The current good fortune of the city of Saxony is revenge for an industrial site long supported at arm’s length by the public authorities, through the reverses of history and the reversals of the economic situation. The specialty of microelectronics dates back to the times of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
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