Where’s the Chips Education Act?

I don’t think Bits&Chips readers have missed the news, but let me recap briefly: we have a 43-billion-euro European Chips Act to take the manufacturing capacity of semiconductors in Europe to a 20 percent market share by 2030. That’s up from 5-10 percent, depending on which link in the value chain is considered. It’s a great and very welcome ambition. There has been much discussion about whether 43 billion euros will be enough, but that’s a moot point since the Chips Act doesn’t address the main bottleneck: people.

People install equipment and operate the fabs. People design the next-generation chips. People assemble and package these chips. People develop the tools to do all that. People come up with new applications for chips. People are employees of all players along the value chain. People establish startups and drive scale-ups. And, maybe most importantly, people teach people to be those people.