Spain cannot find semiconductor manufacturers despite having 12,000 million in aid

Spain is working to create a new industry for the production of semiconductor chips, and despite having European subsidies totaling more than 12,000 million euros in aid, it cannot find manufacturers who want to establish their companies in our territory.

The economic impact derived from Covid-19, in addition to the chip shortage crisis, has brought to the table the existence of a problem in Europe regarding the production of semiconductors. There is an Asian monopoly in this industry and that is that South Korea produces more chips than the rest of the planet together, without counting Taiwan, Japan and China.

The problem is evident, we increasingly depend on electronic products that most of them require chips to function properly, and we depend on foreign countries to satisfy the demand. For this reason, Europe has decided that it wants to produce one fifth of the world’s microchips by 2030 (currently it is 10%) and has allowed member countries to provide state aid for the creation of this industry.

However, this task is turning out to be more complicated than expected, and that the Sánchez administration has more than 12,000 million euros to subsidize the creation of factories in our country. This is mainly due to the fact that manufacturers are looking for territories with an already established industry, and several European countries have a certain advantage over Spain, which makes negotiations more complicated.

For example, Germany is already counting on Intel to establish itself there and is in advanced talks with the world’s largest chipmaker, TSMC. While France already has companies like Global Foundries Inc. and STMicroelectronics NV for the production of energy efficient chips.

For his part, it seems that the executive is not entirely concerned. “We are fully confident that these conversations will soon bear fruit in relevant announcements,” he explained in a statement to which he has had access.

Establishing a semiconductor chip industry is also very important to supply the demand for these devices for the Spanish automobile industry, which is the second largest in Europe and accounts for 10% of our country’s gross domestic product.