Overview

• The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has deemed the EU's semiconductor strategy 'deeply disconnected from reality,' highlighting significant challenges to achieving its 20% global market share target by 2030.
• The ECA report forecasts the EU will only reach an 11.7% share of the global semiconductor market by 2030, up marginally from 10% in 2022.
• Fragmented funding across national schemes and insufficient centralized oversight are hampering progress, with only 5% of the €86 billion Chips Act budget directly controlled by the European Commission.
• Delays in major projects, such as Intel's €30 billion facility in Germany, underscore the widening investment gap compared to global competitors like TSMC and Samsung, which invested $425 billion between 2020 and 2023.
• The ECA recommends an urgent strategic reassessment, systematic monitoring, and more realistic, coordinated objectives to address the EU's lagging progress in the semiconductor race.