Europe's Chip Wake-Up Call: Imec CEO Says the Continent Needs Its Own Nvidia

A Stark Warning from Europe's Chip Heartland

Patrick Vandenameele, who took over as CEO of imec in April, has issued a blunt warning to Brussels: if Europe wants to compete in the age of artificial intelligence, it must stop obsessing over chip factories and start cultivating its own AI chip designers. Speaking to Reuters in Antwerp, Vandenameele said the upcoming Chips Act 2.0 must prioritise building a domestic design ecosystem, or the continent will keep watching American and Chinese firms capture the most lucrative slice of the semiconductor market.

Why the First Chips Act Fell Short

The original European Chips Act, a 43 billion euro package launched in 2023, stabilised the industry but failed in its headline ambition of doubling Europe's share of the global chip market to 20% by 2030. Vandenameele argues the lesson is clear: throwing money at fabrication plants is not enough when the real value, and the real geopolitical leverage, sits with the companies that design the silicon that powers AI models.

Building on What Europe Already Has

Rather than try to out-build TSMC or Samsung, Vandenameele wants Europe to lean on its genuine strengths. He pointed to ASML, ASM International, BESI, and EV Group as world-leading equipment makers, and suggested the most realistic route to advanced manufacturing is to encourage TSMC to expand its Dresden facility to a more cutting-edge process node. The design side, he believes, is where Europe can still create the next generation of giants.

Momentum Is Already Building

The push is not just rhetoric. Siemens recently became the first software provider to sign a strategic framework agreement with the European Chips Joint Undertaking, opening up its industry-standard design tools to approved European startups under pre-defined terms. That kind of shared infrastructure is exactly the foundation Vandenameele says Europe needs if it wants to nurture homegrown AI chip champions.

What Happens Next

The European Commission is expected to unveil the Chips Act 2.0 proposal on 27 May as part of a wider tech sovereignty package. The choices made in that document will shape whether Europe ends up as a customer of American and Asian AI hardware, or whether it finally produces a chip designer of its own that the rest of the world has to pay attention to.