The United States and the European Union must avoid a subsidy race as they rush to support semiconductor production amid a global chip shortage, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Friday.

"We really need to avoid a subsidy race, a race that leaves everyone poorer off," Vestager said in a speech at the University of Leuven, warning taxpayers would have to fund this.

"In the present circumstances, it may be a temptation too hard to resist for companies to try to play governments out against one another, scanning the landscape to see who will pay more - the risk, of course, is letting taxpayers, whether European or American, pick up the bill and getting maybe very little from that investment," she continued.

  - Reuters