Technological sovereignty begins with memory

Technological sovereignty begins with memory. Please present your company. Who are you?

Monika Wilk: Wilk Elektronik is mainly known from Goodram’s memory. The company has been operating on the market for 30 years and is a family company. The electronics wolf was founded by my parents in 1991. We have been producing computer memory in Łaziska Górne in Silesia for over 20 years. We are a leader on the Polish market and more, because we are currently selling in about 40 countries.

Wiesław Wilk: We – depending on the period and the product group – from 30 to 50 percent. shares in the Polish market. We are the only such producer in Europe. As for the Polish market, we overtook large world companies. So we are a unique company.

Where did the idea to create such a company come from?

WW: I used to start with Atari computers, with memory extensions to them. Later, PCs appeared and one of the elements of these computers is memory. We once had very large computer manufacturers in Poland, such as JTT or Optimus. They were my clients and the company grew up on them.

At one point we came to the conclusion that we must start producing, not just import. It was a decision that went against the entire trend, because we have been dealing with globalization for 20 years. I opened a factory in Poland when everyone was moving factories to China. I remember my biggest customers when I fed.

It seemed unreasonable, production in China is cheaper.

WW: It is cheaper, but I thought that the market would develop very dynamically, and we never faced the market segment, where it is fought only with the price. What distinguishes our products is quality. This strategy worked, because in the meantime the demand for memory increased so much that they are today in virtually every device. These are no longer the times when the memory appeared only in computers – today we will find them in refrigerators, washing machines, cash registers, etc.

Are you a company with completely Polish capital? There is no foreign capital?

MW: Our company represents 100 % Polish, family capital. So I am aware of the fact that we are quite an unusual company in this sector. We try to fight what parents have developed for thirty years.

A family company that focuses on quality, not just the price. What is the case that technological sovereignty has become so important in today’s world?

WW: Technological sovereignty is a concept that appeared relatively recently, after such events as Pandemia Covid, when we saw that the lack of chips stopped car production in Germany. Technological sovereignty is that a given country is independent, i.e. it can control its economy itself. At the moment, Europe is not technologically sovereign, because production, including chips, has been exported to Asia. However, for some time we have seen understanding in many political circles that we must have high technologies in Europe. And we are very happy about it.

MW: Today it is clear that technology has become a tool for political and economic pressure. This is clearly seen on the example of the US and China competition, in which technology has become a key tool in the race for dominance and in building position in the international arena, often by deliberately limiting access to the latest solutions.

The policy of dependence, pressure and technological blackmail is really very visible and people are openly talking about it. Therefore, we must now focus on a gradual reduction of technological dependence. This is a long way, because 20 years ago Europe was responsible for one -fifth of the world production of semiconductors – it is the market we are operating today. Today is less than one tenth. However, China at the same time with about 1 percent increased market share to about 20 percent. This dynamics is unfortunately very unfavorable for Europe.

How did it happen that we have come to such an addiction when it comes to supply chains?

MW: I think that above all, the price of the price dominated. All the time we thought about all friends: Europe, China, the United States. Today, it is increasingly clear that geopolitics is of great importance. Europe has been approaching it in a simple way for years: since it is cheaper in China, then we move production – and as a result we exported a large part of our industry. In the early years of two thousand, Europe had about 25 percent. participation in world industrial production, today it is about 15 percent. At the same time, China with 7 percent They increased their share to 30 %, because we thought only in the prices category, and not in terms of long -term strategic goals. China had a perspective of what is important, which would be important in 5, 10 years, and simply consistently implemented this policy, and successfully.

You mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic, but we also have the current geopolitical situation, i.e. a war in Ukraine. How should we take care of production in the face of these challenges?

WW: We must take care of production in Poland, because in the event of a conflict we will have to use modern weapons, and modern weapons are e.g. drones. In all these devices there are semiconductors and it is difficult to produce this weapon here continuous and independent if semiconductors are imported from third countries. We produce memory, which is also part of advanced weapons and we are one of the elements that can build this technological sovereignty.

You talked about China. It was indeed that 30 years ago there was a “world factory”. Currently, it is a country that is developing a lot. What should we start learning from China as soon as possible?

WW: We are a different country than China, but still some good things can be taken over from China. What China did great is the policy of “Made in China”, which they announced a decade ago. They saw whether they knew that they have a very large internal market, and government, local government and local administration is a very large player in this market, the ordering player. Therefore, they introduced such provisions that ultimately every computer that will be used in administration must have a motherboard, a processor, memory, i.e. critical components produced in China. The Chinese want to be independent. Poland is a wealthy and large country in which the government and government administration is also a very large player ordering large amounts of computer equipment.

MW: There is a lot of talk about inviting foreign Asian investors to come to Europe and open their factories with the support of our subsidies, i.e. our taxes. However, this is a point solution that is also partly needed, but remember that where the capital comes from, it matters.

It was recently said that it did not matter where the capital came from.

WW: Our prime minister said very wisely that capital has nationality.

MW: I think it is about the fact that if we invite world giants, you have to do it on a joint venture, so that some know-how also stays in Europe. It is not on the principle that we invite these companies, we co -finance them, and they will return to each other when the subsidies will end. Another important issue is that when it comes to equipment technology, the scale is of key importance. The ecosystem is of key importance for this scale, because why open the semiconductor factory here, if we do not have further elements of the supply chain, i.e. someone later does not create integrated circuits. From these integrated circuits we could create memory, processors, then put them in the motherboard, and then create a computer from them.

We must think a little bolder as Poles, Europeans, so that most of this added value stays here, not in Asia. This is crucial.

It can be said that this is the last bell – for both Europe and Poland. What kind of reinforcements or forms of state assistance do companies like yours expect to continue development?

WW: It seems to me that the state already understands what is needed. We have recently dealt with multiple declarations of Prime Minister Tusk and other government representatives on the support of Polish production. This applies especially to semiconductors. The state must order Polish products, then it will be built by our ecosystem, be it a semiconductor or any other.

MW: The point is that if we have a state impulse, such as the one that powers, for example, China’s economy and makes it independent, it is important to use it primarily through Polish or European companies, and not, for example, those from Asia or North America. The more we produce here, the greater the scale of Polish businesses, the more we can invest in R&D and in our brandy. Ultimately, it will be a breakthrough for us, because the period when Poland was a country of cheap labor ends. This gap between Poland and Western Europe decreases very quickly and as a result, if our only target advantage is the labor force, then this advantage will end in a moment. And then the key will be how much we allocated to R&D and how many Polish brands are, which are visible outside and which are able to compete with know-how, a brand, not just a price.

So you need a clear signal and specific help. If that happened, how do you see your company and similar companies for a decade? Do we have a chance to become the second Taiwan, or maybe even the second China?

WW: Of course we can become the second Taiwan or China. We see ourselves as a technology company. Technology in memory is developing very dynamically and what we are all talking about now is artificial intelligence. This artificial intelligence needs an amazing amount of memory, and memory is what we do. So we see the future of our company clearly, but we also see a very positive future for the entire Polish economy, if the activities we are talking about will be consolidated.