A History of Government Funding Attempted to Rebuild Europe's Semiconductor Industry
There are several developed countries in Europe, such as Germany and France, but their presence in the semiconductor market is weak. The YouTube channel asianometry, which posts videos about economy and history, explains why the development of the semiconductor industry in Europe is delayed.
In recent years, the semiconductor manufacturing market share has been occupied by American and Asian companies such as Intel, TSMC, Samsung, etc., and the presence of European companies is weak. The low presence of Europe in the semiconductor manufacturing market is nothing new. Looking at the top 10 semiconductor company sales rankings in 1985, the top occupied by Japanese and American companies, and Philips barely ranked in 10th among European companies.
Until the 1980s, each country in Europe was trying to grow the semiconductor industry on a country-by-country basis, and there was no cooperative relationship established throughout Europe. As a result, although semiconductor companies in European countries were able to secure a certain amount of influence domestically, their international competitiveness continued to be low.
A 10-year plan aimed at strengthening the external competitiveness of the semiconductor industry led by Etienne Davignon, who was serving as a member of the European Commission at the time, in order to improve the situation in which the semiconductor industry was divided within Europe. 'European Information Technology Research and Development Strategy (Esprit Plan)' was enacted. In the Esprit Plan, subsidies were distributed to semiconductor companies and research institutes in European countries with the aim of establishing semiconductor technology equivalent to that of Japan and the United States within 10 years.
The Esprit project has enabled European semiconductor companies to significantly improve their technological capabilities, and has created an environment for research and development of semiconductor technology through close cooperation among European countries. However, it was said that only large companies benefited from the Esprit plan.
In 1985, President Francois Mitterrand of France proposed the 'Eureka Plan', a plan to fund companies throughout Europe to advance research related to computers and semiconductors. In the Eureka plan, funds were invested in a huge amount of research and development projects of about 1200 cases, but it has also received criticism that ``the government is spending too much'' and ``private companies rely on government subsidies''.
In the 1990s, ``Japan's influence in the semiconductor field has declined,'' and ``Semiconductor manufacturing equipment has switched to the new generation as semiconductors become more miniaturized. A change of circumstances has occurred. During this time, hundreds of billions of yen were invested in research and development in Europe, but in the end, only Korean and Taiwanese semiconductor companies increased their market share, and European companies were unable to expand their influence. did.
However, European companies have not completely lost their grip on the semiconductor market. For example, '
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