Shares in global semiconductor manufacturing capacity

The share of Europe in global fabrication capacity is below 10 % (Figure 2). For advanced technologies (the 7- and 5-nm nodes), 100 % of global capacity is based in East Asia (Taiwan and South Korea). Only TSMC (Taiwan) and Samsung (South Korea) are able to manufacture chips at 5nm, and the global economy relies on Taiwan for 92 % of the production of these chips. In 2013, the Commission adopted a European strategy for micro- and nanoelectronic components and systems; its objective was to reverse the decline of the EU’s share of world supply. However, the Commission itself has recognised that the strategy has failed. Furthermore, along the chips supply chain, Europe has a strong position in some segments (e.g. in the provision of core intellectual property (IP) blocks and fabrication tools), but lags behind in many other segments (Figure 3). The EU has notable weaknesses in design and design automation tools, all vendors of the software used to design chips being based in the United States. Moreover, most of the companies that are active in the assembly, packaging and testing segment are based in Asia.