European co-operation is the best way forward for the semiconductor industry, says Dr Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon.
“If global industrial standards are to continue to come from Europe, we need to think on a larger scale and cooperate on a European level,” says Ploss, “it is only then that we can achieve the critical mass with which we not only serve markets but can define them as well.”
Ploss pointed out that this had, for instance, worked in the past with the mobile radio standard GSM.
Ploss says he thinks the EU components development programme ECSEL which starts off this year and runs to 2020, is the right vehicle for making the European semiconductor industry successful
Ploss is a member of the European Leaders Group which is looking at how to get Europe to a 20% share of world semiconductor=tor markets. The ELG’s second report is due out tomorrow.
The ELG’s first report, presented before Christmas, was not made public and the speculation was that it did not meet with the approval of EC vp Neelie Kroes, who set the 20% target.
It is thought that Kroes told the ELG to come up with something more in tune with her aspiration.
Infineon plans to invest Euro 650 million, 15% of expected revenue, during the course of the current fiscal year. Most of the money will be spent in Germany.
Infineon had revenues of Euros 3.84 billion for a profit of Euros 377 million in its last fiscal year.