Europe is still a leading force in manufacturing legacy chips for the automotive industry and household appliances. A May report<\/a> showed that German Infineon, Dutch NXP and French-Italian STMicro are three of the five largest suppliers in the car chip market. <\/p>\n EU officials are now worried<\/a> that subsidized Chinese firms are gunning for the bloc’s champions.<\/p>\n The EU’s draft survey asks leading manufacturers of low-tech chips in Europe whether an “alternative product” or “product family” from a Chinese competitor exists and what the price difference is, in percentages, between the European chips and Chinese competitors.<\/p>\n The survey also suggests that the EU executive is considering supporting extra chip-making capacity in Europe. It asks whether European producers would be open to a “common wafer fabrication facility” or a “common packaging facility.”<\/p>\n United States and EU officials have been warning of potentially unfair Chinese subsidies for legacy chips. The U.S. already launched a survey<\/a> on the topic in January.<\/p>\n “We know there’s a massive subsidization of that industry on behalf of the Chinese government, which could lead to huge market distortion,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in April on the margins of a high-level transatlantic Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting between EU and U.S. officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/16\/GettyImages-1252532728-1024x683.jpg\")