The European Commission recently presented its 'Digital Compass', which stated the intent to have manufacturing capacities below 5nm nodes and aiming at 2nm.
www.eetasia.com, Mar. 23, 2021 –
Earlier this month, the European Commission presented its 'Digital Compass', which stated the intent to have manufacturing capacities below 5nm nodes and aiming at 2nm, and the production of 20% by value of global semiconductor production in Europe.
This is clearly driven by concerns about overdependence on chip production in Asia and the potential for being caught up in any future US-Asia political crossfire, which could lead to future chip shortages. But building a $30 billion 5nm or 2nm fab is not really going to solve the issue, as some industry commentators have noted.
One of these is industry analyst Yole Développement, who said, "In reality, a $30 billion fab plant is a perilous way to secure European technological sovereignty." In its snapshot of the semiconductor industry, Yole said constructing such a state-of-the-art facility, without support from TSMC or Samsung, will take at least 10 to 15 years and demand tens of billions of dollars of investment. In addition, it may not even end in success. Citing Intel's challenges, Yole said, "Intel has encountered difficulties on delivering its own advanced 7nm manufacturing process – if the US computing giant can't easily succeed at this process node, should Europe pursue an even riskier jump to 5 nm?"