Strategic Approaches to Technological Sovereignty in Global Value Chains: Insights from the Semiconductor Industry

Technological sovereignty has become a central issue in innovation and industrial policy amid intensifying geopolitical and technological competition. Yet few empirical studies explain how states pursue sovereignty within deeply globalized value chains. This article examines how national and regional actors seek technological sovereignty in the semiconductor industry—a paradigmatic case of strategic dependence. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines trade and patent data, analysis of public policy documents, and thirty-five interviews with industry and governmental leaders, the study investigates the degree of embedded agency of an actor—its capacity to influence, rather than merely participate in, global technological systems. It analyzes three interdependent capabilities through which sovereignty is exercised: the ability to provide critical technologies, the ability to source them securely from partners, and the ability to constrain competitors' access. By comparing the United States and the European Union, the article develops a typology of strategic approaches—Technological Statecraft, Cooperative Autonomy, and Dependent Resilience—that conceptualizes sovereignty as a means of governing interdependence rather than as a quest for isolation.