SOPOT, Poland, March 17 (Reuters) - Europe's semiconductor industry must invest in more automated and larger 300-millimeter wafer fabs to counter growing competition from Chinese rivals in power and analog chips, an Infineon Technologies executive said last Friday.

Speaking at a conference for semiconductor industry executives in Poland, Thomas Altenmueller, Vice President Manufacturing Analytics at Infineon, said that Chinese manufacturers were rapidly gaining capacity and expertise in areas historically dominated by European chipmakers.

"They are learning fast. They have the capacity," Altenmueller said. "It is super serious."

Altenmueller said the shift toward power and analog chips by Chinese companies was pushed by export restrictions on more advanced semiconductor tools like ASML's EUV lithography machines.

EUROPE MUST SCALE UP AND CONSOLIDATE OPERATIONS

Europe must scale up and consolidate its operations, utilising automation, particularly with modern 300-millimetre wafer fabs to increase economy of scale and lessen the impact of higher labour costs, Altenmueller said.

At the same conference, executives from STMicroelectronics laid out plans for automating older fabs that cannot be fully modernised, deploying robots to increase efficiency.

While Europe's semiconductor firms lack market share in AI accelerators, which are dominated by Nvidia ( NVDA ), Samsung and TSMC, Altenmueller said energy-efficient power delivery chips, crucial for managing the rising energy demands of data centers, had vast growth potential.

The European Union's first Chips Act aimed to increase the bloc's share of global chip production from 10% to 20% by 2030. It primarily focused on new projects and "first-of-a-kind".

Altenmueller said Europe's existing profitable plants should not be overlooked, as they remain essential to its global competitiveness.

The EU is now working on a refreshed Chips Act 2.0.

"Europe's competitiveness ultimately resides in its traditional industrial strengths in automotive and industrial chips," Altenmueller said. "Don't forget our strengths."