Europe, Taiwan and semiconductors: will there be news soon?

Europe, Taiwan and semiconductors: will there be news soon?

Europe, Taiwan and semiconductors

The problems encountered following the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2020 highlighted the need to improve the semiconductor supply chain. For this reason, as reported by Nikkei, Europe and Taiwan plan to strengthen their economic and diplomatic relations. As we have reported, TSMC is already evaluating the construction of a new microchip factory in Europe (and Italy is among the countries considered), for which a budget of 10 billion euros has been established.

Europe can rely on chips designed by companies such as Bosch, Ericsson, Infineon Technologies, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors and ST Microelectronics, which are widely used in the automotive, information technology and telecommunications industries. However, there are not many European chip makers (including GlobalFoundries, Infineon, NXP and STMicro) and none of them have advanced manufacturing technologies, which is why European companies in need of state-of-the-art nodes are forced to outsource. production at TSMC or Samsung Foundry.



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Intel also announced that it will invest 80 billion euros over the next 10 years for the construction of plants in Europe, which will deal with the entire supply chain inherent in the production of semiconductors, from research and development departments to the production and packaging of chip. For more information about it, we advise you to read our previous dedicated article.






Taiwan assures EU it'll remain trusted partner in global chip industry

The relationship between the EU and Taiwan just got a little warmer, with Taiwan saying it will continue to be a trusted partner for the global chip industry, and help stabilize the global supply chain.


The news is coming from Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua, who spoke with a senior European Union official are 'rare high-level talks' on Thursday, according to Reuters, that Taipei described as a 'big breakthrough'. The difference between other meetings and now is that the Taiwan-EU meetings have shifted from the deputy level -- at previous meetings -- to a ministerial level, the ministry calling this a 'major breakthrough in Taiwan-EU relations'.


This is a continued push from the EU, which kicked off its 'European Chips Act' in February 2022 -- at the time mentioning TSMC and other semiconductor companies -- with Taiwan being one of the 'like-minded partners' that Europe wants to work with.


Wang's ministry focused on areas like semiconductor cooperation, and I'm sure much more, with the director-general for trade at the European Commission, Sabine Weyand. The ministry said that Wang emphasized: 'Taiwan will continue to be a trusted partner of the global semiconductor industry and help stabilise supply chain resilience'.