What used to be the good Bordeaux or the space program is set to bubble up from clean room factories in the future: French President Emmanuel Macron discovers the charm of semiconductor manufacturing. Between a diplomatic publicity campaign and an industrial policy vision, he is now thinking aloud about 2 nm fabs “Made in France” – not with his own technology, of course, but with Asian know-how from Taiwan or South Korea. That sounds ambitious. Or naive. Or both.
From the Élysée Palace to the cleanroom lab: Europe’s new chip obsession
Ever since the USA declared chip production a geopolitical weapon – it started under Trump, Biden took it further – Europe has been slowly but audibly fighting back. France wants to do more than just watch. Macron is using the stage at VivaTech 2025 to publicly woo TSMC and Samsung. The goal: local production of 2 to 10 nm chips. Reality: France does not yet have the know-how, the infrastructure or the customers who need such nodes. While the foundations for TSMC’s European mega-fab are already being poured in Dresden, Macron is dreaming of a parallel prestige facility on French soil. But how to entice them? With subsidies? With academic talent? Or with the prospect of years of approval processes and strike-happy trade unions?
Concert of industrial policy wishes with Asian accompaniment
Macron openly states what is obvious: without external help, there will be no cutting-edge technology in France. Neither Samsung nor TSMC are building their state-of-the-art production facilities out of boredom – they are following capital, demand and political protection. Germany offers all of this. France? Perhaps soon, with a lot of persuasion. What’s more, France is not a center for high-performance IT. Neither Nvidia, Apple nor AMD have relevant design centers there. Instead: Automotive, IoT, industry – domains that are also well served with 16nm. So why bring 2nm production to a place where hardly anyone needs 2nm chips?
Geopolitical logic vs. economic reality
The strategic idea is not wrong: Europe needs independence. The “American premium tariff” on imported chips will become real as soon as trade relations cool down. China offers alternatives, but with a political aftertaste – and that is something that Brussels wants to avoid at all costs. Europe is therefore in a classic dilemma: too dependent on the East, too expensive in the West, too fragmented at home. A French Fab would be both a symbol and a risk. A symbol of European independence. Risk, because the utilization of such plants requires more than just political will – it requires tangible industrial demand, long-term contracts and technological evolution on the continent.
Conclusion: chip policy with chutzpah but with realism, please
France wants semiconductors, not castles in the air. But what Macron is calling for is more than just an investment – it is a diplomatic tour de force. If you want to persuade TSMC or Samsung to commit to a billion-euro project, you have to offer more than charm and Chablis. The fab will not come because Macron wants it – it will come when the business model pays off. Until then, Europe’s semiconductor policy will remain a strategic balancing act between ambition and reality – with Macron as an elegant tightrope walker who may soon have the wind of reality blowing around his ears.
Source: Money
