EU Offers Ambitious Chips Law That May Struggle to Deliver Funds
- The 45 billion euro plan relies on mix of funding sources
- Subsidy requests will face scrutiny from competition officials
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The European Union unveiled its plan Tuesday to use its economic leverage to attract large semiconductor producers like Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., but reaching the full 45 billion euro ($51.4 billion) price tag depends on a controversial and untested method of subsidizing production.
Under the EU’s Chips Act, the bloc would allow its massive state aid funding program to be used for “first-of-a-kind” production sites in Europe, as part of a larger goal of producing 20% of the world’s semiconductors by 2030.