Key excerpt regarding chip making in Germany: Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share

Key excerpt regarding chip making in Germany: Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/75841b94-196e-466f-ad1b-72d3809c33fc https://www.ft.com/content/75841b94-196e-466f-ad1b-72d3809c3... The region has been burnt by politicians’ fading interest before. While Taiwan was shoring up the semiconductor sector with nine-figure subsidies at the turn of the century, European support for the capital intensive industry remained modest. As recently as 2009, Dresden-based memory chipmaker Qimonda — one of the world’s largest — filed for bankruptcy after struggling to compete with Asian rivals despite appeals to the European Commission for support. “Qimonda wasn’t saved, [carmaker] Opel was saved,” said Frank Bösenberg, managing director of Silicon Saxony’s representative body, which lobbies on behalf of 370 institutions. “Whose belts are standing still right now due to the lack of semiconductors?” he said, referring to Opel’s production lines.