Brussels wants AI chips made in Europe, tech chief says

ANTWERP, Belgium — The European Commission wants to ensure the microchips needed to train artificial intelligence models are made in Europe, tech chief Henna Virkkunen told POLITICO.

It’s the Commission’s “aim” to have an AI chips factory on European soil, the European Commission’s executive vice president said Tuesday in an interview on the sidelines of the industry event ITF World in Antwerp.

“It’s a very important part of our technological sovereignty that we are able to design and manufacture AI chips in the future,” Virkkunen said.

European artificial intelligence companies are heavily reliant on U.S.-based chipmakers, such as Nvidia, for the supply of chips that can provide the computer power needed to train the most advanced AI models. The U.S. had threatened to cap the export of some of those chips to Europe as of this month but last week walked back that measure.

Efforts to ensure AI chips are made in Europe are on the table as part of an upcoming review of the EU’s Chips Act. The Commission must by September 2026 present a review of its chipmaking plan, which aimed to boost the bloc’s share in the global value chain to 20 percent by 2030. European auditors recently said the bloc is falling short on that promise.

The Commission is now trying to identify “gaps” where it needs to invest and where it needs to ensure that the EU is “competitive” in this field, Virkkunen said.

Industry leaders seemed to throw their weight behind Virkkunen’s pitch.

Luc Van den hove, CEO of Belgian chip research company Imec, told reporters at the event that “one of the big challenges we face … is that we don’t have these huge fabless companies” like Nvidia.

Fabless chip companies design chips but don’t have their own factories so they outsource manufacturing. “We need some of those and that’s what we have to enable,” Van den hove said.

In recent months, several European startups such as Spanish Openchip have emerged with plans to build a European AI chip that would rival those from Nvidia. Their products are not market-ready yet, though.

Last week, Virkkunen met with representatives from Nvidia during a trip to the U.S.

“Europe is a very interesting continent from their perspective,” she said about the meeting, referencing the Commission’s plans to set up AI factories aimed at giving startups and researchers access to computing power.

“These are massive investments where a very big amount of AI chips are needed,” Virkkunen said.