Europe’s Semiconductor Sovereignty
Lithography, equipment, power chips, RF, sensors, packaging and chip sovereignty.
Semiconductors have become one of the decisive tests of European strategic autonomy. Europe cannot sustain credible independence in AI, defence systems, space infrastructure, secure communications, automotive electronics, energy grids or cyber-physical industrial systems without reliable access to advanced and specialised chips. The issue is not whether Europe can reproduce the entire global semiconductor value chain within its own borders. That is neither realistic nor necessary. The real question is whether Europe can distinguish genuine industrial strengths from political ambition, secure the technologies it already controls, and reduce exposure to external chokepoints in design tools, advanced foundry capacity, memory, substrates, chemicals, packaging, skilled labour and export-controlled equipment.
The report examines semiconductor sovereignty as an industrial, regulatory and financial problem. It first explains why chips now form part of Europe’s strategic industrial base. It then maps the value chain in detail, separating lithography, equipment, FD-SOI, power semiconductors, RF components, sensors, secure chips, space-qualified chips, photonic chips and advanced packaging. The report then assesses the European policy response, including the Chips Act, the Chips Joint Undertaking, pilot lines, IPCEI projects, State aid decisions, export controls, investment screening and cybersecurity certification. It concludes with a Defence Finance Monitor assessment of Europe’s real strengths, fragile strengths, unresolved dependencies and investment-relevant bottlenecks, with particular attention to the companies, research organisations and infrastructure nodes most exposed to the next phase of European chip sovereignty.