STMicroelectronics, a symbol of the ills and challenges of European electronics

Did Europe miss the opportunity to become the global hub of artificial intelligence (AI) thirty years ago? It was early 1994. A year after founding Nvidia on April 5, 1993, in Sunnyvale, California, Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem were looking for a factory to produce their first graphics processor, the NV1, which could run video games on personal computers. They chose a European company: SGS-Thomson, the forerunner of the Franco-Italian manufacturer STMicroelectronics. Founded in May 1987, the company was the result of the merger of the French company Thomson Semiconductors and the Italian company Societa Generale Semiconduttori (SGS), two pioneers of microelectronics on the Old Continent.

The NV1 was not a great commercial success. But, by relying on the factories and know-how of SGS-Thomson, Nvidia launched the activity that would make it, thirty years and several well-negotiated technological developments later, the most valuable company in the world, the first to cross, on July 9, the $4 trillion (€3.4 trillion) market capitalization mark . Today, all AI engines use Nvidia chips for their calculations and Mr. Huang, still at the helm of the company, travels the world with the honors due to a head of state.

Opposite, its historical partner is worth 160 times less (25 billion euros) and only semiconductor specialists know the name of its CEO, Jean-Marc Chéry, appointed head of the Franco-Italian group in September 2019, a company where he spent his entire career after starting in 1986 at Thomson Semiconductors.

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