Recommendations on the proposal for a Chips Act 2.0
Europe’s competitiveness and economic security hinge on keeping pace with the fast-evolving semiconductor landscape. Chips are the foundation for connectivity, defence, AI, clean energy, robotics and mobility, and the global market is heading past USD 1 trillion in 2026, driven above all by AI.
Europe holds world-class expertise in several parts of the global semiconductor value chain—equipment, materials, specialty manufacturing and chip design—yet it produces under 10% of global output and covers only around one fifth of its own consumption, leaving it exposed to geopolitical risks, economic coercion and supply shocks.
Technology Industries of Finland (TIF) welcomes the European Commission’s proposal of 3 June 2026 for a Chips Act 2.0 (COM(2026) 504). The proposal forms part of the Commission’s Technological Sovereignty Package, and it should be assessed in that frame: the ultimate objective is sufficient autonomy for Europe’s critical digital systems, built together with trusted partners.
This paper sets out the views of TIF and, in particular, its Semiconductor Branch Group as the proposal enters the ordinary legislative procedure.
Overall, the proposal moves in the right direction and answers many of the industry’s central calls. It rightly shifts the Chips Act from a supply-only logic towards also creating demand for European chips—through industry-led Demand Accelerators, a Demand Forum, cross-sectoral Grand Challenges and chip innovation procurement. It widens the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) scope across the whole value chain, adds a dedicated photonics strand, deepens quantum-chip work from pilot lines towards prototyping and production, and caps permitting at 12 months through a national one-stop-shop. It also introduces the Semiconductor Regions of Excellence label—for which Finland’s strong regional ecosystems in the Helsinki capital region, Tampere and Oulu are well placed to qualify—and puts the Industrial Alliance for Semiconductors and strategic international partnerships on a formal footing.
Yet the decisive questions remain open. The Regulation itself carries almost no money of its own: the budgetary firepower is decided separately, in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034 and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). The European Semiconductor Board stays advisory, industry’s role in setting priorities is thinner than the proposal’s own demand-led logic requires, and the new procurement and risk-prone-sector obligations risk adding administrative burden even as the proposal seeks to cut it.
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