The European Commission will allocate 525 million euros to boost chip design, a segment in which European companies account for barely 1% of global revenue.
The European Commission has announced an investment of 525 million euros to promote semiconductor design, as reported by El Plural. The aim is for European companies to develop their own components and bring them to market with less reliance on foreign technologies.
According to the Commission itself, European chip design companies represent less than 1% of global revenue in this segment. This weakness is particularly relevant now that the expansion of artificial intelligence is driving demand for semiconductors.
The measure was presented by the Executive Vice-President of the Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen. It includes two allocations: 440 million euros in grants for startups to cover the development costs of their products, and 85 million for a new European design platform that will provide access to specialized tools, technical services, and manufacturing capacity.
Of the total amount, 285 million will come from the community budget and 240 million from the participating States in the Joint Chip Company.
The problem goes beyond financing. Designing a semiconductor requires specialized computer tools, technical knowledge, access to intellectual property, and resources that many small companies cannot afford alone. The new platform aims to share part of that infrastructure so that ideas from European laboratories and research centres reach the market more quickly.
The Commission acknowledges in the documentation of its proposal for the European Chips Act, presented in June 2026, that European design relies heavily on tools and blocks of intellectual property from the United States. Europe has manufacturers of machinery, industrial semiconductors, and automotive components, but has less presence in the design of advanced digital chips.
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