European Union Announces-Euro Chip Bill

On September 15, Ursula von der Leven, president of the European Commission, announced the EuropeanChips Act, which aims to create an "ecosystem" of advanced chip manufacturing in an effort to keep the EU competitive and self-sufficient. The semiconductor shortage that has long plagued the world highlights the dangers of the EU's high dependence on Asian and US chip suppliers.

The bill is understood to have three elements:

The first part, semiconductor research strategy, is to strengthen cooperation with IMEC of Belgium, LETI/CEA of France, Fraunhofer of Germany, and other research institutions

The second part includes a collective plan to improve Chip's manufacturing capacity in Europe. The proposed legislation will aim to support chip supply chain monitoring and production capacity between design, production, packaging, equipment, and suppliers such as wafer producers. The goal will be to support the development in Europe of "giant T-plants" capable of churning out the most advanced (2nm and below and energy-efficient semiconductors;

The third part will develop a framework for international cooperation and partnership. According to Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, "The idea is not to produce everything ourselves here in Europe. In addition to making our local production more resilient, we need to devise a strategy to diversify our supply chain to reduce over-reliance on a single country or region.

The "Euro chip bill" builds on other digital initiatives already on the table, according to a supplementary document released on Wednesday. For example, the Digital Market Act and the Digital Services Act regulate the power of Internet giants and increase the accountability of platforms; The AI Act regulates high-risk applications of AI, addresses online misinformation, and promotes investment in regional digital infrastructure and skills.

It is worth noting that in May this year, the media reported that the United States senate democratic sense leaders Chuck Schumer 18 evening local time in the United States formally announced a bipartisan pass an amendment, approved a $52 billion emergency supplemental, in order to raise over five years of the semiconductor chip production and research and development. The amendment's $52 billion appropriation includes $49.5 billion in emergency supplemental funding for chip provisions contained in the 2021 NationalDefense Authorization Act, known as the "America's chip Act."

In this $49.5 billion, $39 billion will be used for semiconductor manufacturing and r&d incentives: $10.5 billion will be used to implement including national semiconductor technology center, the national advanced packaging manufacturing plan, and other research and development programs, in addition, there are 1.5 billion dollars in emergency funds will be used to help replace China Huawei communications equipment providers And ZTE equipment, accelerating the development of the Open RAN architecture led by U.S. vendors. It should be noted, however, that the $52 billion will require a separate process to raise funds.

It is not hard to find that the "shortage of core" caused by the COVID-19 has awakened a sense of crisis in more and more countries, and the semiconductor issue has risen to the issue of "technology sovereignty", and countries are competing in this field one after another. In addition to the European Union and the United States, since last year, South Korea and Japan have also actively introduced national semiconductor policies and provided huge investment subsidy programs to promote the development of the local semiconductor industry.