Industry urges pragmatic EU Chips Act 2.0 to close gap with US and China

Group 1 - The European Union needs to incentivize investments in the semiconductor industry to maintain security and competitiveness against U.S. and Asian rivals [1][2] - SEMI Europe has recommended that the EU Commission revise the 2023 Chips Act to attract 43 billion euros in investments for chip facilities [1][2] - The EU is expected to propose significant revisions in March, ahead of schedule, in what is referred to as Chips Act 2.0 [2] Group 2 - The focus should shift from attracting advanced manufacturing to supporting European supply chains and leveraging existing strengths in equipment manufacturing, such as ASML [3] - SEMI suggests removing the strict "first of a kind" criterion for state aid and establishing a single point of contact for project approvals [4] - A coalition of European governments has called for a Chips Act 2.0 that prioritizes the semiconductor sector and proposes a budget of 20 billion euros for chip projects, representing a quadrupling of current funding [5]