George Mathias
THE Spanish government’s plan to invest €12 billion euros is struggling to get off the ground thanks to a lack of chipmakers willing to take on the project.
Spain’s new tech drive has received billions of euros of investment from the EUs Covid recovery fund in line with an EU target to produce a fifth of the world’s microchips by 2030.
According to Bloomberg, firms courted by the Spanish government are instead opting for partnerships with business in Germany, which already has an established semiconductor ecosystem.
Photo: Pixnio
Manufacturers have shown interest in the government’s chip drive which was announced two months ago, but it appears an unproven track record in the sector is deterring business from partnering up.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Bloomberg: “We are fully confident that these conversations will soon bear fruit in relevant announcements.”
The EU and US are locked in a race to increase chip production, with Western governments keen to reduce their dependence on an industry typically outsourced to Asian markets.
The US this week announced a $52 billion investment into semiconductor manufacturing.
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In a previous post I had already critized Spains plan to become a new place for chip production. Compared to 52 Billion US Dollars that USA invests into chip manufacturing, 12 Billion from the EU for Spain, which has no proven track record in this matter, is waste of money. Cooperation with Germany’s Infinion is a better decision to make Europe more independent on the global chip market. In return Germany can promise it will not produce oranges to compete on the Spanish fruit market.