> But he acknowledged at the report's launch that it was still unclear whether this would involve offering tax cuts to woo TSMC, Samsung or another major player to establish a new site within Europe.<p>Sounds like it'll be another half-assed EU project that won't amount to anything meaningful. They should be looking at home-growing talent (research labs, universities, programs) and rebuilding the European industry (joint partnerships, funding, subisidies, etc.), instead of relying on overseas companies for such a crucial and strategic issue.
I've had a number of conversations recently on how semi conductors could be the new oil in relation to geo politics and it seems that many policies are coming out that reinforce that.<p>It'll be interesting in the coming decades whether or not we can navigate this one peacefully or not. There is likely hope though as it's not really limited by natural resources or geography, at least right now, but rather on intellectual property which is inherently infinite except for the artificial constraints we've applied to it.
Historically European "grand plan" computing pushes don't work. It's great to try.<p>Anyone else worked through 5th generation, the Alvey report and the MITI catchup?<p>What does work is sustained organic investment in fundamental science and an environment which stimulates SME.<p>Its the transition to world scale which seems to defeat European initiated planning.
Europe has something arguably more valuable than semiconductor manufacturing - they have ASML Holding, which produces the equipment that makes the semiconductor manufacturing possible. In the gold rush, they're the ones selling picks and shovels.
The EU doesn't have the talent or the resources, especially not if they're planning on fleecing engineers like they do with software engineers (which earn 1/3rd or less the equivalent position's salary in the US).<p>There's no reason to be in the EU as an engineer, unless you like making trade-offs that leave you in a net negative position (no, free healthcare is not worth >$100,000 less salary).