Germany begins construction of $11 bln chip factory

BERLIN

The groundbreaking ceremony for one of the biggest chip factories in Germany was held in the eastern city of Dresden on Aug. 20 with the participation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and other international guests.

Scholz thanked Taiwan’s TSMC and its German partners for their 10 billion euro ($11 billion) investment in Dresden, underlining that his government will provide strong support for investments in the area of microelectronics and semiconductors technologies.

“We want to remain a leading industrial country,” Scholz said, adding that Germany cannot afford to lag behind in the global race for microprocessors, in an era marked by digital transformation, and transition to renewable energies.

“Semiconductors will be like the fuel or the oil of the 21st century. This century will be economically and industrially shaped by two megatrends: a comprehensive digitalization of our lives, and decarbonization, the global departure from fossil fuels,” he said.

“And anyone who wants to be at the forefront of these two megatrends needs one thing above all, that’s semiconductors,” he said.

Scholz also underlined that with major investments in Germany and other European countries, they would like to end their dependence on the “other regions of the world” for the supply of semiconductors.

“I want to say explicitly that we are not talking about achieving economic self-sufficiency here, or dismantling global supply and value chains. De-coupling, or disconnecting ourselves from other markets would definitely be the wrong approach,” he said.

“What we would like to do is de-risking. Diversification of our sources of supply, with a smart and forward-looking approach, expanding our own expertise and capacities. That is what we need,” he added.