BRUSSELS — The European Commission is reviving a long-running dream of making cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips in Europe, reducing the continent’s reliance on producers in the U.S. and Asia.
The bloc’s executive arm is working with the Belgian R&D center Imec and the German innovation agency SPRIND on early plans for a state-of-the-art semiconductor factory, according to three people briefed on the talks.
The push reflects growing concern in Brussels that Europe has fallen far behind when it comes to the core technology powering the AI economy, with the bloc reliant on chips designed in the U.S. and manufactured there, or in Taiwan and South Korea. Developing local manufacturing capacity would give Europe a shot at controlling more of the AI supply chain, capturing more of its economic value and insulating itself from geopolitical shocks.