The injection of €3 billion ($3.2 billion) by the French government into a joint fabrication plant between the country’s chip maker STMicroelectronics and Global Foundries is part of a broader global realignment of the semiconductor industry that has been gathering steam for several years. Several factors have been at play, with the increasing tensions between the US and China playing a part, which has exacerbated fears over the high concentration of foundry capacity in Taiwan. There has also been a concurrent desire among the world’s major trading blocs or economic powers, including the EU, India and to an extent Japan, on top of the US and China, for autonomy in prime technological or industrial sectors. This reduces dependency on foreign…