TSMC will open a chip design center in Germany. It will not be enough to avoid the failure of Europe

Just a few hours ago Paul de Bot, the president of the European subsidiary of TSMC, has announced that your company will build a semiconductor design center in Munich (Germany). This installation will be ready in a record time: During the third quarter of 2025. In fact, this Taiwanese integrated circuit manufacturer, The Major on the Planettrust that this installation starts its operations in just three months.

The construction and tuning of a avant -garde chips factory requires investing at least four years in these processes before starting large -scale production, but the installation that TSMC will be tuned is not a factory: it is a design center. This is the reason why it is credible that may be ready in just three months. In fact, as its purpose is not to manufacture semiconductors does not need Nor lithography equipment No wafering processing machines.

Paul de Bot has confirmed That this center will be dedicated to helping European customers from TSMC to design integrated high density, high performance and high efficiency circuits. These chips can be used by automobile industries, telecommunications or artificial intelligence (AI), among others. However, this project runs in parallel to the semiconductor production plant that TSMC is already building in Dresde (Germany). This factory is underway, but presumably will not start the operation until the end of 2027.

This integrated circuit design center does nothing for Europe

The arrival in Germany of this TSMC installation is good news, there is no doubt about that. However, his contribution to the aspirations of the old continent in the matter of chips production is irrelevant. On February 8, 2022 Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced that Europe wants to be a fundamental actor in The semiconductor industryand the first step to achieve this requires manufacturing 20% ​​of the planet chips in 2030.

It is evident that in the delicate current geopolitical situation Europe needs to be ambitious if it wants to increase its relevance in the semiconductor industry. Have ASML and Intel, Globalfoundries and TSMC facilities within its borders plays in its favor. However, The speech of European leaders It seems to be focused on quantity, and is not enough. The quality understood as the capacity of a chip to deliver added value is also fundamental.

The new integrated circuit design center of TSMC presumably will deliver value to European companies, but, as we have seen, it will not produce semiconductors, so it will not quantitatively contribute to the aspirations of the old continent. It is better to have it than not to have it, there is no doubt about that, but its role in the objective of which we have spoken two paragraphs above will be inconsequential. In fact, it is very unlikely that Europe achieves its purpose.

We do not say it, although we share it; The European Court of Accounts holds itwhich is nothing other than “the financial guardian” of the European Union. In The report that published At the end of last April he defends that the objective of achieving a fee of 20% in the world market for integrated circuits in 2030 It seems unattainable Because Europe is very far from the rhythm of production necessary to fill its ambitions. To achieve this production capacity, it would have to be four times higher in less than five years and is far from achieving those figures at the current development speed.

Image | TSMC

More information | Digitimes Asia | SCMP

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