Saxony
Saxony exemplifies preferential attachment: Silicon Saxony produces 1/3 of Europe's chips as TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and Infineon invest €50B+, while 3,600 companies employ 81K in Dresden's microelectronics cluster—projected to add €12.6B GDP by 2030.
Saxony exists because semiconductors exist—and because Dresden's precision engineering heritage created Europe's largest microelectronics cluster from Cold War remnants. Silicon Saxony now produces one-third of Europe's chips, with the metropolitan triangle of Dresden-Leipzig-Chemnitz hosting 3,600+ companies employing 81,000 in ICT and microelectronics. The ecosystem's 2024 momentum appears unstoppable: TSMC (world's largest chip manufacturer) chose Dresden for its first European fab, investing €10 billion alongside Bosch, Infineon, and NXP. GlobalFoundries plans €7.6 billion expansion to double Dresden capacity by 2030. Infineon's Dresden expansion represents the company's largest single investment ever. Total regional semiconductor investment exceeds €50 billion across a 300km radius. This preferential attachment—success breeding success—traces to Zeiss, Leica, and East German electronics manufacturing traditions that survived reunification's industrial collapse. The semiconductor ecosystem is projected to add €12.6 billion annual value and 7% GDP share by 2030, requiring 25,000 additional skilled workers in Dresden alone. Yet path-dependence carries risk: the €75.909 billion GDP (2023) depends heavily on global chip demand cycles, and skilled labor shortages (100,000 workers needed by 2030) create growth constraints. The partial collapse of Dresden's Carola Bridge in 2024 symbolized infrastructure decay underlying the boom—old foundations straining under new weight.