As Washington pushes to rebuild domestic semiconductor capacity, Europe’s fastest-growing chip market is quietly enriching one of America’s closest Asian allies.
Germany’s semiconductor industry is projected to reach about $32.7 billion by 2030, driven by electric vehicles, automation, and data centers – but much of that growth is benefiting South Korean chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, best known in the U.S. for its smartphones but also the world’s largest memory producer, and SK Hynix, a major supplier of chips used in Apple and Nvidia products.
Germany ‘s shift toward high-performance electric vehicles and smart factories has fueled surging demand for memory chips, yet the country’s local manufacturing base remains weak after the 2009 collapse of Qimonda, a former Infineon subsidiary.
That gap has opened the door for Korean suppliers to dominate imports. Last year, South Korea provided more than 17% of Germany’s memory chips, worth roughly $215 million, making it one of the largest foreign players in the market.
For U.S. policymakers, the trend highlights a familiar dilemma: while Washington invests billions through the CHIPS and Science Act to rebuild domestic production, allies like South Korea are capturing some of the most profitable slices of the global supply chain. From AI processors to EV batteries, Korean firms now occupy critical positions in technologies that Washington views as strategically vital.
Germany ‘s booming chip market – supported by major investments from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud – underscores a widening divide between where chips are consumed and where they’re made. For now, Berlin’s growth means more business for Seoul – not Silicon Valley.
