TSMC said this week that it has no plans to build factories in Europe. A news that should irritate Brussels, exchanges having taken place in recent months between the EU and the Taiwanese manufacturer.
A snub for the European authorities. Despite calls from Brussels to attract the giants of the semiconductor industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) does not see Europe as a priority to increase its production capacities. Indeed, the Taiwanese giant let it be known this week that it had no concrete plans to build factories in Europe, reports Reuters.
The news is likely to annoy the EU executive, as trade talks centered on chip cooperation between Taiwan and the EU took place just last week. Bloomberg revealed that TSMC had started discussions with the German government last year on the possibility of building a factory in the country, which is preparing to host an Intel mega-factory as part of a 17 billion investment. euros.
Mark Liu, chairman of TSMC, had also told shareholders in June 2021 that the company had begun examining the potential establishment of microchip manufacturing units in Germany. Finally, there will be nothing immediately.
The United States and Japan rather than Europe
This backpedaling is a blow to the war effort deployed by Europe to reduce its dependence on Asia, which alone accounts for 80% of the world’s production of electronic chips. To change the situation, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, presented in early February the Chips Act, a 42 billion euro plan aimed at increasing the EU’s share in the world production of semiconductors to 20% by 2030, compared to less than 10% today. Thirty years ago, Europe produced 40% of electronic chips worldwide.
As part of the European Semiconductor Ramp-Up Strategy, the EU had cited Taiwan as one of the “like-minded partners” with which Europe would like to work. Obviously, Brussels will have to find other partners, TSMC having other priorities than the Old Continent for its investments outside of Taiwan.
The first subcontractor in the manufacture of electronic chips indeed spends 12 billion dollars in the construction of a production site in the United States and 7 billion dollars to build a factory with Sony in Japan. In total, in a context of global shortage of electronic components, the Taiwanese manufacturer, which counts Apple and Qualcomm among its customers, plans to invest 100 billion dollars over three years in its production units. But it now seems certain that the group’s investments will not be directed towards Europe.