Big European nations likely to gain the most from EU chip push

Chip manufacturing in Europe has dropped from 24% of global production capacity in 2000 to a current 8%, and chipmaker ASML warned that it could fall to 4% if no action is taken

The European Commission's plan to make the continent more lucrative for investing in semiconductor factories will likely skew the benefits towards larger countries such as Germany, France and Italy, analysts say.

With billions of euros of public and private investment, along with covering up to 100% of the proven funding gap with public resources, a subsidy race could tilt the balance toward countries with larger resources.

"I don't see how that can be avoided as that's just the nature of the beast ... same as in the U.S. where states give different subsidies to get the companies to build in