Europe Doesn’t Need a $30 Billion White Elephant
The continent desperately wants to become self-reliant when it comes to tech. But it’s focusing on the wrong things.
Who has the chips?
Source: Bloomberg
In parts of southeast Asia, white elephants were long considered a symbol of prosperity because they were expensive to maintain and served little practical purpose. It’s an apt metaphor for Europe’s latest plan to catch up with the U.S. and Asia in technology.
The European Union is considering the construction of its own advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility, Bloomberg News and others reported on Thursday. The ambition to make next-generation silicon chips is admirable, but it’s also wildly misplaced. Yes, these underpin most of today’s cutting edge technologies — smartphones, virtual reality goggles, data centers and plenty more besides. But there’s simply not enough demand for these particular chips in Europe, and there isn’t likely to be any time soon.