(a) on Monday, June 7 2021: "The electrical corporation and automotive supplier Bosch has put its new semiconductor factory in Dresden into operation. However, for the tense chip supply situation in the automotive industry and for the semiconductor sector in Europe, the new production line is unlikely to be much more than a drop in the ocean.
"The company has invested around €1 billion [which is peanuts] in its Dresden facility. Of this, € 200 million is funding from the European IPCEI programme.
"In the new fab, Bosch plans to produce mainly ASICS and power semiconductors for the automotive industry * * * on 300mm wafers. It is true that Bosch only builds chips with structure widths of 65nm here - the world's most advanced chip production facilities already work with structure sizes of 5nm. * * *
" * * * the first chips are to leave the factory in the middle of the year - but these are not the urgently needed automotive chips, but much less complex circuits for power tools.
"Bosch has been building some of its own semiconductors for 50 years. However, all of these go to the 'captive market [alluding to Bosch's own products],' primarily to the automotive industry.
(b) "Yet Europe has not played an important role in semiconductor technology for a long time * * *
Note:
(a)
(i) Robert Bosch GmbH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_GmbH
(1886- ; commonly known as Bosch; founder Robert Bosch [Robert is his German spelling], based in Gerlingen [9 km west of Stuttgart])
(ii) The Dutch and North German surname Bosch is "from Middle Dutch bussch, meaning 'wood' rather than 'bush.' "
(b) Dresden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden
(table: Population (2019-12-31) City 557,000/ "is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. * * * Dresden is the second largest city on the River Elbe after Hamburg. * * * The name of the city as well as the names of most of its boroughs and rivers are of Slavic origin. * * * Its [Dresden's] name etymologically derives from Old Sorbian [Sorbian is extant language of Sorbs (Slavic) people, who live straddling East Germany and Poland] Drežďany, meaning people of the forest.")
(c) An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC /ˈeɪsɪk/) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficiency bitcoin miner is an ASIC." en.wikipedia.org for "application-specific integrated circuit."
"The Bosch plant will make specialist power-management chips and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are designed to carry out a single task, such as triggering a car's automatic braking system.
"It will not however address shortages of products like microcontrollers which have forced auto makers to halt production and are expected by industry leaders and analysts to extend into next year.