Dual-Use by Design or by Default?

About this report

The European Union has moved rapidly from treating semiconductors as a supply-chain vulnerability exposed by the 2020–2022 shortage to framing them as a strategic asset embedded in technological sovereignty and defence readiness.

This shift has produced a visible convergence between civilian semiconductor policy, centred on the EU Chips Act, and defence-industrial policy, structured around the European Defence Fund and the European Defence Industry Programme. However, this convergence remains largely rhetorical at the level that matters for industrial execution. The concept of “dual-use” has been elevated to a central organising principle, yet its operational meaning is unclear.

Key questions this report answers

• How has the EU reframed semiconductors from a supply-chain vulnerability into a strategic asset for technological sovereignty and defence readiness?
• How do the Chips Act and the EDF/EDIP architectures converge, and why does that convergence remain largely rhetorical for industrial execution?
• What structural misalignments and empirical eligibility tests (advanced packaging, photonics) reveal about the dual-use label as an institutional construct?
• How might Chips Act 2.0 serve as a decision point, and what scenarios follow for 2026-2027?

Inside this report

• Executive summary
• Strategic reframing from shortage management to strategic and defence framing
• Analytical framework for sovereignty, interdependence, and dual-use industrial p
• EU semiconductor industrial policy architecture under the Chips Act and Chips Jo
• EU defence-industrial policy architecture centred on EDF and EDIP
• Structural misalignments and the dual-use label as an institutional construct
• Empirical tests of convergent eligibility in advanced packaging, photonics, and
• Chips Act 2.0 as a decision point and scenarios for 2026–2027

Who it's for

Strategy, corporate-development and investment teams that need an ecosystem-level view — budgets, industrial capacity and technology landscapes — before committing capital or capacity.

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• GaN Semiconductor Verticalization in Europe: Regulatory Framework and Entry Points for U.S. Firms
• The EMS Layer as an Industrial Readiness Proxy
• Sovereign Microelectronics and the Galileo PRS Value Chain: Who Controls the Critical Nodes

Methodology, format & delivery

DFM reports are built from primary and official sources — TED procurement notices, CORDIS and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIB operations, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio, SIPRI data, official budget documents and company disclosures — read together with the underlying legal texts. Sources are cited in the document; it reflects them as of its publication date (19 March 2026). You receive a 20-page PDF, watermarked to you on every page, delivered on the confirmation page and by e-mail immediately after checkout (personal link valid 72 hours, up to 5 downloads). Guest checkout, single-user licence — Terms of Sale.

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