ASML’s boss has told Brussels to stop fiddling with chip supply chains and build companies worth buying from instead.
Dutch chip kit maker ASML, chief executive Christophe Fouquet, told the FT that cutting foreign tech dependence requires stronger European companies.
ASML sells about one per cent of its kit in Europe, while about 80 per cent goes to Asia. That leaves the company dangerously exposed, because its natural business should sit close to customers, Fouquet said.
His warning landed days after the EU showed off a new chips strategy with emergency powers to steer supplies during shortages. Brussels wants less dependence on US technology firms and Asian manufacturers, but its itch to intervene is getting harder to ignore.
Policymakers are weighing industrial meddling against creating conditions where European companies can grow up and compete globally.
“People say: ‘let’s buy European first’. I think it’s great, but you have got to have something to buy from.”
France and others want more “buy European” clauses in public procurement, which sounds lovely until the cupboard is bare. Critics say European preference rules do little when Europe lacks competitive domestic alternatives.
Fouquet said Europe needs to build as “many champions as possible” across the semiconductor supply chain. He wants Europe’s share of global chip activity closer to its roughly 18 per cent slice of world GDP.
But he said Europe must stop driving promising companies abroad with regulation and process worship. ASML is among European technology companies lobbying Brussels to ease regulatory burdens, particularly around AI.
Fouquet pointed to slow permits, limited capital access and the bloc’s AI rules as problems facing the business. He said there was “a temptation that is too strong for the Commission to try to do the industry’s job”.
That includes plans to develop data centres and chip fabrication plants, where Brussels fancies itself as some sort of silicon foreman.
AI data centre demand is outrunning manufacturers’ ability to expand production quickly. ASML supplies extreme ultraviolet lithography machines used to make the world’s most advanced chips.
Fouquet said ASML had prepared for the demand surge and was planning more expansion while improving machine productivity.
The company is expanding near its Veldhoven headquarters in the Netherlands. It plans to lift output of its newest EUV machines by 50 per cent this year.
But Fouquet said it still takes about 4 years to build a factory in Europe due to planning constraints and permit delays. Finding and training staff and expanding the supply network are putting further limits on growth.
Beyond production, Fouquet said ASML could play a bigger role as an investor in Europe’s technology scene.
After backing French AI outfit Mistral and German optical firm Zeiss, ASML is hunting for more opportunities inside and outside its supply chains.
“As the company becomes wealthier, we, of course, have more means to do that. I can promise you that we will be looking at more opportunities to do that because it’s a good thing. First for the company, for people and ultimately for Europe,” Fouquet said.
