Through analysis of the Defence Finance Monitor database, we have identified a set of tier-2 and tier-3 European hidden champions that are strategically positioned to mitigate a specific autonomy bottleneck in Europe’s semiconductor stack: the combined constraint on advanced logic capabilities and sovereign access to critical substrates and back-end integration. The database allows a structured linkage between this bottleneck and the industrial nodes where dependencies concentrate, enabling the identification of companies whose technologies, industrial roles, and positions within the value chain directly address these gaps. In practical terms, this approach moves the analysis beyond generic “chip sovereignty” narratives toward an evidence-based mapping of the intermediate layers that determine feasibility, highlighting the specialised European suppliers and technology owners most capable of reinforcing resilience where the system is structurally most exposed.