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Behind ASML lies a broader European ecosystem stretching from Eindhoven and Leuven to Dresden and Grenoble. Understanding the future of ASML may therefore require understanding the networks of expertise, research and industrial collaboration that surround it.
When seven European technology leaders issued a joint call for action, much of the discussion focused on regulation. Yet the significance of the coalition may lie elsewhere. By bringing together companies from semiconductors, telecommunications, industrial systems, software, artificial intelligence and aerospace, the statement reveals a broader shift in European thinking: from individual sectors toward interconnected technology ecosystems.
Europe’s technological future may depend less on national champions and more on networks of specialised ecosystems. From semiconductors and cloud infrastructure to energy systems and research clusters, competitiveness increasingly emerges from the connections between Europe’s most important capabilities.
Artificial intelligence may be built with software, but it runs on electricity. As Europe expands its ambitions in AI, cloud computing and technological sovereignty, energy infrastructure is emerging as one of the most critical foundations of future competitiveness and resilience.
Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a software revolution. Increasingly, however, AI is revealing itself as something much larger: an industrial system built upon energy, semiconductors, infrastructure and global supply chains. As intelligence scales, the real competition may shift from algorithms toward the ecosystems capable of sustaining them.
As Europe rethinks the original ambitions of the Chips Act, a new semiconductor strategy is emerging — one focused less on scale and more on control over the critical technological layers underpinning modern infrastructure.
Semiconductors are no longer merely industrial components inside devices. In the age of AI infrastructure, they are increasingly becoming part of the strategic utility layer of states themselves — connecting computation, energy, cloud infrastructure, industrial resilience and geopolitical power.
Europe’s semiconductor future may depend less on isolated regional excellence and more on the continent’s ability to connect its ecosystems into a coherent technological architecture. From Eindhoven to Dresden and Leuven to Milan, Chips Act 2.0 increasingly reveals the importance of continental coordination.
As Europe prepares for Chips Act 2.0, the semiconductor debate is shifting beyond factories and subsidies toward infrastructure, ecosystems and technological indispensability. This Perspective series explores how Europe is repositioning itself through strategic specialization, industrial depth and interconnected innovation networks.
Europe’s upcoming Chips Act 2.0 signals a major strategic shift in Brussels. Instead of chasing unrealistic semiconductor self-sufficiency, the European Union increasingly aims to become technologically indispensable through photonics, industrial AI, advanced equipment and critical infrastructure technologies.
