After the US cut China’s access to cutting-edge chips, the EU and US are concerned about the country’s dominance of semiconductors used in everyday technology.

Legacy chips, used in everything from washing machines to cars and TVs to medical devices, may not be as powerful as the state-of-the-art semiconductors that power artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. But they’re a growing headache for the United States and European Union due to China’s market dominance.

Washington has already blocked Chinese firms from accessing Western-designed cutting-edge chips in the hope of delaying Beijing’s ambitionof becoming a technology superpower. Attention has now turned to so-called legacy chips, of which China currently has close to a third of the world’s manufacturing capacity.

Faced with limited access to the more advanced chips, Beijing has sharply stepped up investments in the production of mature chip technology. In September, the Chinese government announced a $40 billion (€37 billion) state-backed investment fund to bolster domestic semiconductor production. That move strengthened industry calls for Western nations to take action to shore up their own chipmakers.