Europe to launch multi-billion-euro tech fund to compete with U.S. & Asia

French Finance Minister, Le Maire said a new publicly-funded multi-billion-euro fund is being created to boost investment in Europe's tech sector. This investment is to enable it to compete with the U.S. and Asian rivals. Homegrown European tech start-ups need higher levels of financing. If Europe is to reduce its reliance on foreign tech giants, it has to get more financing. According to Le Maire, he would provide details of the new fund with his German counterpart, Christian Lindner on Tuesday. He also claims that 10 to 20 funds with a total value of at least 1 billion euros would be offered to fund tech leaders.

Berlin will add 1 billion euros to the fund, the German finance ministry said in a statement. According to reports, European venture capital funds are often too small to fund the growth of European tech startups. Thus, they have no choice but to turn to larger U.S. funds. Many U.S. and Chinese tech companies benefited from public funding at some stage in their development. For Europe, startups do not have access to public funds due to the EU’s strict state aid rules.

Funding is necessary for Europe's plans

The European Union has plans to significantly reduce its dependence on American chips. However, if there is no funding, then it will most likely not achieve this aim. At the moment, none of the top five chip manufacturers globally is from Europe. The EU believes that reducing its external dependence in key areas can make the EU more independent in digital technology and better advocate EU interests. In terms of self-production, the European Union said it would seek all kinds of support through the openness of the Internet.

The "Digital Compass Project" is a wide project from the EU to improve its technological advancement. Europe plans to deploy 10,000 carbon-neutral data centers to ensure that companies obtain fast data services. Furthermore, by 2025, there are plans to develop quantum computers. Although the first quantum computer is official in Germany, this device is not from a European company.

Furthermore, the EU will launch an efficiency monitoring mechanism. From time to time, it will appraise its performance with respect to this plan. In addition, there will be regular annual reports from the European Commission. The reports will describe the development achievements of these programs. Most of the semiconductor foundries in the world are in the U.S. or Asia. However, TSMC and Samsung Electronics are far ahead in the industry.