EU agrees chips subsidies plan, EU industry chief says

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union has agreed a 43-billion-euro ($47 billion) plan to boost its semiconductor industry to try to catch up with the United States and Asia, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday.

The European Commission, EU countries and EU lawmakers had been negotiating on the final details of the Chips Act in Strasbourg, eastern France, since 7 a.m. (0500 GMT).

“We reached a deal on the EU Chips Act,” Breton told a news conference.

Reuters reported on April 5 a deal was imminent this week.

The Chips Act aims to double the bloc’s share of global chip output to 20% by 2030 and comes after the United States announced its CHIPS for America Act to compete with Chinese technology.

While the Commission had originally proposed funding only cutting-edge chip plants, EU governments and lawmakers have widened the scope to cover the whole value chain, including older chips and research and design facilities.

U.S. chipmaker Intel, which will get German subsidies for a plant in Germany, welcomed the deal.

“The EU Chips Act will crowd-in investments to where they are most needed – in manufacturing capabilities, skills, and R&D. The strong and broad political support for these objectives shows that the EU is serious about securing its future prosperity,” Hendrik Bourgeois, VP European Government Affairs at Intel, said.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Potter)