BRUSSELS -- The European Union wants to produce a fifth of the global output of cutting-edge semiconductors at the end of this decade and make its first quantum computer in five years, as part of efforts to cut its dependence on non-European technologies.
The EU plan called 2030 Digital Compass comes as the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the 27-country bloc's reliance on key technologies owned by Chinese and U.S. companies.
The plan cited the importance of semiconductors, used in connected cars, smartphones, internet-linked devices, high-performance computers and artificial intelligence, and where a global shortage is shutting down car factories around the world.
"It is our proposed level of ambition that by 2030 the production of cutting-edge and sustainable semiconductors in Europe including processors is at least 20 percent of world production in value," according to an EU document seen by Reuters.
The EU has discussed potentially establishing a new foundry as part of a plan to boost semiconductor production in Europe, Bloomberg has reported previously. The EU wants to manufacture chips faster than the most efficient 5nm semiconductors made by industry leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics.
"A reduction in critical dependencies will enable the EU to become digitally sovereign and better able to assert European interests," the EU said in the document, which said its approach would seek to support "the open nature of the Internet."
