The baroque splendour of Versailles, a lavish monument to European power, provided a suitably resplendent backdrop for a discussion over what is arguably the continent’s most ambitious, and costly, high-tech manufacturing project.
As Emmanuel Macron, the French president, sat down with Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger in the 17th century palace outside Paris during a conference late last month, one topic was foremost on their agenda.
The EU is seeking to launch itself into the global premier league of semiconductor manufacturing, setting itself the daunting goal of doubling its share of the global chip market by 2030. Intel has placed itself at the heart of those ambitions, with the US company proposing to build a brand new $20bn semiconductor factory on the continent.