The CxO Summit at SEMICON Europa 2025 spotlighted Europe’s ongoing efforts to build a resilient and globally competitive semiconductor industry, while calling for greater ambition, speed, and unity in execution. Following global disruptions with the automotive supply chain crisis, the European Union launched a continent-wide strategy through the EU Chips Act. While the Act has already spurred significant developments, including construction of the new ESMC fab in Dresden, Europe remains far from its goal of achieving a 20% share of global semiconductor production by 2030. The CxO Summit, part of the SEMICON Europa event in Munich, provided an opportunity for industry leaders to share ideas about how to catalyze the next phase of the European industry’s growth.Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of SEMI opened the summit by describing today’s industry landscape with one word: “unprecedented.” Manocha said, “The global growth of the industry is unprecedented, with 107 new fabs set to come online by 2028, but the uncertainties are unprecedented, from geopolitics to the talent shortage to environmental concerns. So we need unprecedented solutions.” Ajit Manocha, President and CEO, SEMILaith Altimime, President of SEMI Europe echoed the mood of uncertainty, describing Europe as caught “in a perfect storm.” Altimime said, “As we face a combination of internal challenges and intensifying external competition, collaboration is not optional — it is mission critical.” Laith Altimime, President, SEMI EuropePierre Chastenet, Head of the Unit for Microelectronics and Photonics, European Commission, highlighted the tangible progress made under the EU Chips Act. “We now have a proper toolbox to handle a future crisis in the supply chain. The Chips for Europe initiative has led to the creation of five pilot lines for advanced technologies such as FD-SOI and wide bandgap semiconductors.” Chastenet added, “Europe must now capitalize on its strengths, from materials and equipment to design tools and cutting-edge research emerging from our RTOs.”Pierre Chastanet, Head of the Unit for Microelectronics and Photonics, European CommissionEchoing the call for action, Oliver Schenk, Member of the European Parliament, urged stronger regional unity. “Europe must act together, act faster, and act with much bigger ambition,” Schenk said, reinforcing the need for cross-border commitment to strengthen the continent’s semiconductor position.Oliver Schenk, Member of the European Parliament, European ParliamentHighlighting Europe’s most critical technology gap, Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of imec, unveiled plans for a new advanced fab backed by €2.5 billion in investment from the EU, the Flemish government, and ASML. Van den hove urged Europe to commit wholeheartedly to advanced technologies: “We must be more ambitious, and focus on disruptive breakthroughs rather than incremental change if we want to ensure a prosperous future.”Luc Van den hove, President CEO, imecAt the CxO Summit, CEA-Leti and ASML signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deepen their collaboration and accelerate innovation in mainstream semiconductor technologies. Building on promising results in hybrid bonding, the partnership will now target 'More-than-Moore' innovations, including heterogeneous integration and novel substrates like SiC and GaN. “We aim to combine ASML’s world-class lithography expertise with CEA-Leti’s system-level innovation,” said Sébastien Dauvé, CEO of CEA-Leti. The collaboration is set to strengthen Europe’s ecosystem by shortening the path from early research to industrial impact.Left: Anne Hidma, Senior Vice President EUR US, ASML; Right: Sébastien Dauvé, CEO, CEA-LetiTurning to Europe’s industrial base, Christian Senger, CEO of Volkswagen Autonomous Mobility, emphasized the need to shift from risk-aversion to opportunity. While the region’s automotive sector faces intense global competition, particularly from China, Senger highlighted that Europe has the potential to lead in new mobility markets. “The market for autonomous roboshuttles for people transport in large cities is forecast to be worth €400 billion in the US and Europe alone,” he said. With American firms like Waymo and Uber leading the robotaxi space, Senger stressed that Europe must “act swiftly to create an environment that supports an autonomous mobility industry here.”Christian Senger, Member of the Board for Fully Autonomous Mobility and Transport CEO of ADMT GmbH, VolkswagenEurope’s Potential to Create Advanced TechnologyOne of these RTOs, CEA-Leti, is responsible for the FAMES pilot line for FD-SOI technology. Sébastien Dauvé, CEO of CEA-Leti, agreed with Pierre Chastenet that the pilot lines show great promise. He said, “FD-SOI is a big trend in semiconductors, because it enables very low power consumption in embedded devices. We think that adoption of the technology will grow in the coming years, and that is good, because most of the technology is produced in Europe.”Sébastien Dauvé, CEO, CEA-LetiEurope is also widely recognized to be the leading global voice on sustainability – a huge issue of concern to the semiconductor industry. Henri Berthe, President of the Semiconductor and Battery Segment at Scheider Electric, told the summit that 500 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year are attributable to the semiconductor industry – “more than the whole of Mexico emits!” he said. “We need to make fabs more efficient, and that is why Schneider Electric has launched a new playbook with Applied Materials for sustainable energy abundance for the industry.”Henri Berthe, President of the Semiconductor Segment, Schneider ElectricAnother aspect of Europe’s playbook is support for new fabs. The flagship is ESMC, the joint venture between TSMC, NXP Semiconductors, Bosch, and Infineon. Christian Koitzsch, president and managing director of ESMC, reported to the summit that the project to build in Dresden a 12nm FinFET foundry and a 28nm CMOS line, requiring a total investment of €10bn, is on schedule. “We are now developing local supply chains, hosting a series of ESMC Supplier Days which are open not only to German but generally to European suppliers,” said Koitzsch.Christian Koitzsch, President and Managing Director, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC)As Manfred Horstmann, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Global Foundries, pointed out, the building of the ESMC fab means that Dresden is established as the center of a cluster of semiconductor industry companies. “Global Foundries has its Fab 1 and a mask center in Dresden. In fact, one-third of the chips produced throughout the whole of Europe now comes from Dresden.”Manfred Horstmann, General Manager and Senior Vice President, GlobalFoundriesAn example of ambition was given by Terence Gan, Executive Director of the Institute of Microelectronics of Singapore. Gan told the summit how Singapore has used pilot lines to stimulate research and development in new technologies. He said: “We started research into advanced packaging as long ago as 2011. Most people thought we were mad! But today, there is strong demand for our advanced packaging capabilities because of the rise of AI and its need for high-performance computing.”Terence Gan, Executive Director, Institute of MicroelectronicsBreaking Barriers to ProgressDespite momentum, bureaucratic inefficiencies continue to hamper progress. Narjiss Haddaoui, Managing Director of European Economics called for faster decision-making: “In global competition, speed is a decisive factor. To act fast enough, the EU must change its ‘software’ - the processes by which it considers and makes decisions.” Narjiss Haddaoui, Managing Director, European economicsThe stifling character of European bureaucracy is reflected in the region’s approach to building fabs. Herbert Blaschitz, Executive Vice President of Advanced Technology Facilities at Exyte, compared fab construction timelines: 20 months in Taiwan, 34 in Europe, and 38 in the U.S., attributing delays in Europe to paperwork bottlenecks.Herbert Blaschitz, Executive VP of Advanced Technology Facilities, ExyteFabio Gualandris, President for Quality, Manufacturing and Technology at STMicroelectronics raised another concern — 100% of raw materials used in European fabs come from outside the region. Christophe Frey, Vice-President for EU Engagements at Arm France, added that geopolitical tensions are clouding the path forward: “We are a bit lost in the smoke from the big fire in the world’s semiconductor industry.” Fabio Gualandris, President Quality, Manufacturing Technology, STMicroelectronics Christophe Frey, Vice-President of EU Engagements, Arm FrancePlaybooks For Future SuccessSo amid the uncertainty and global tension, what lessons can the industry learn from successful regional examples? Tuomas Korpela, Business Development Senior Manager at Nokia, credited Finland’s strategic procurement and policy tools with enabling a vibrant semiconductor ecosystem: “Finland creates demand for advanced chips using industrial policy tools, alongside strategic procurement in sectors such as defense and aerospace, and connectivity.” Tuomas Korpela, Business Development Senior Manager - Corporate Development Organization, NokiaAt a regional level, Joerg Schulze, Director of the Bavarian Chips Alliance, said that his organization was supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, as well as by companies and universities. “We help semiconductor companies to establish themselves and grow here through help with site searches, networking and contacts, funding and support, and talent acquisition,” said Schulze.Joerg Schulze, Spokesperson for the Bavarian Chips Alliance, Director of the Fraunhofer IISB, Bayern Innovativ GmbHCompanies in the European semiconductor supply chain also provided the summit with their insights into the roots of global success. André Grede, Chief Technology Officer of Comet, described how his company’s strategy is not to wait for customers to tell it what they need, but to be “ahead of the curve.” Grede said: “Is staying in sync with the customer enough? Not for us - we are deeply embedded with our customers, and constantly looking to broaden our relevance to them.”André Grede, CTO, CometChristophe Maleville, Chief Technology Officer of Soitec, provided a real-world example of how this is done. He said: “Our engineered substrates using RF-SOI technology reduce the drain on a mobile phone’s battery power, and cut our customers’ board footprint thanks to RF front end integration. As a result, our products are now in 100% of 5G smartphones.”Christophe Maleville, CTO, SoitecAnne Hidma, Senior Vice-President for Europe and the US at ASML, shared the company’s success formula: “The reasons for ASML’s success include customer focus – decide which markets you are going to be in, and which you are not. We are also all-in on innovation. We nurture an ecosystem, which for us includes imec and CEA-Leti, as well as partnerships with academia. And lastly, we have a strong supply base, which is a core strength of Europe.” In a time marked by both uncertainty and opportunity, the example of ASML shows how the European semiconductor supply chain can survive and thrive.Anne Hidma, Senior Vice President EUR US, ASMLEurope’s Path ForwardThe CxO Summit made one thing clear: Europe has world-class innovation, policy momentum, and industrial commitment. What’s needed now is faster execution, deeper collaboration, and the courage to invest in the technologies of tomorrow. As the industry heads toward the $1 trillion milestone, the decisions made today will shape Europe’s place in the semiconductor world for decades to come.On behalf of SEMI, the SEMI Europe team would like to express appreciation to the industry leaders for sharing their visions and readiness to collaborate during the CxO Summit.SEMI ContactLaith Altimime, President SEMI [email protected]
