This is undoubtedly one of the most strategic companies in Europe, and yet it remains politically under-exploited, poorly defended diplomatically, and sometimes neglected by those who should make it a pillar of industrial sovereignty. ASML, the only company in the world to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines necessary for the manufacture of the most advanced semiconductors, embodies an unparalleled technological success, of which Europe is slow to grasp the strategic scope.
A technological monopoly which has become a digital vault key
ASML is today The only world supplier Machines capable of engraving transistors at the scale of a few nanometers, essential for artificial intelligence processors, 5G chips, GPUs, military equipment or high -end smartphones.
What makes ASML irreplaceable is not only its technology, but the lock position that it occupies in the global value chain of semiconductors. Each machine, sold between $ 200 and $ 400 million depending on the model, mobilizes more than a hundred specialized suppliers, divided between Europe, the United States and Asia. The slightest disturbance, whether commercial, political or logistical, immediately affects the manufacture of chips on a global scale.
In other words, Without ASML, no great technological power can produce the most efficient fleas. Neither China, the United States, Taiwan, nor South Korea have viable alternative in the short term. This dependence gives ASML an exceptional strategic centrality, the company has become a critical knot of the global digital economy, in the same way as a satellite operator or an energy infrastructure provider.
Fragmented European governance
Since 2019, ASML has been directly exposed to geopolitical tensions. The Trump administration had then prompted the Dutch government to block exports from certain machines to China. Under the Biden presidency, the restrictions have extended to older models. The problem is that these decisions, decisive for the turnover of the company, are taken at the Dutch government level, often under external pressure.
During this time, the European Union only intervenes on the marginsmust have a clear doctrine on the management of critical industrial assets. As a result, the most decisive company for European digital sovereignty is left alone in a game of global influence that exceeds it.
Punctual support or strategic governance?
The question is no longer whether ASML should be supported, but how to structure this support over time. Given its unique role, the company goes beyond the status of industrial champion and is now of a strategic interest which must be shared, on the continent level.
This implies not political guardianship, but the development of a Concerted governance frameworkassociating the European institutions, the states concerned and the industrial partners with the objective to anticipate geopolitical tensions, secure critical supply chains, align export policies and structure long -term investment.
ASML could thus benefit from a protection and projection architecture comparable to that of Airbus in aeronautics or Galileo in space. It is still necessary that this recognition translates as a framework of action.
An opportunity still striking
Christophe Fouquet, CEO of ASML since 2023, reminds him without detour: “The fact that Asml has become an important subject is a real chance for Europe. It is still necessary to transform this exhibition into a strategy.
Because the risk is known, without clear framework, ASML is exposed to double vulnerability, On the one hand, economic, faced with commercial retaliation measures or logistical ruptures and on the other hand technological, faced with the rapid progression of Chinese substitution programs. Huawei, for example, recruited former ASML employees and stored machines before the entry into force of prohibitions.
Europe already has a leader. It remains to make a lever.
The United States actively protect its digital giants, China is massively funding its strategic sectors, Europe, it, it, already has a key player in global technological balancebut struggles to consider him as such.
Suffice to say that Asml does not need discourse on sovereignty, but concrete decisions on shared strategic piloting, which can feed an industrial vision up to its role in the 21st century.
ASML was born from an improbable spin-off born in the 1980s
The story begins in 1984, in a modest prefabricated building on the outskirts of Eindhoven. At that time, PhilipsDutch industrial giant, is associated with ASM Internationalcompany founded by Arthur Del Prado, to create a joint venture dedicated to a technological bet to locally produce machines capable of engraving integrated circuits with extreme precision. The young company is then baptized ASM Lithography.
Its first product, the Not 2000was launched in 1985. But the beginnings are difficult, technology is fragile, and the business results disappointing. In 1988, Philips partially withdrew from the capital, leaving the company to seek its path independently; It was then that she changed her name to ASML And is responsible for catching up with American and Japanese photolithography leaders, like Nikon and Canon.
1990s: resilience and internationalization
The 1990s were marked by a strategy of technological consolidation and openness to Asian and American markets. ASML is on the stock market in 1995, both on Euronext Amsterdam and Nasdaq, which allows it to lift the capital necessary to develop its next generations of machines.
At the end of the decade, the company acquired MasktoolsThen Silicon Valley Group (SVG) In 2001, an American company specializing in lithography equipment. This last acquisition gives it access to a solid R&D base on American territory, while consolidating its presence with the large founders of semiconductors.
2000s / 2010s: from challenger to leader
At the turn of the millennium, ASML multiplies innovations to meet the growing demand for integration into electronic fleas. It becomes one of the three world actors in lithography alongside Nikon and Canon, but it was in the early 2010s that a decisive turning point occurred.
The company invests massively in the development of a new technology, the EUV lithography (Extreme Ultraviolet). Unlike previous techniques using visible or near UV light, the EUV uses much shorter wavelengths (13.5 nm), allowing to engrave even smaller transistors.
To accelerate this technological revolution, ASML obtains unprecedented financial support with Intel, TSMC and Samsung, which in 2012 take minority participations in its capital, injecting more than a billion euros to help it industrialize the EUV.
EUV, global power catalyst
It will take almost ten years for this technology to be ready for industrial production. The first deliveries of EUV machines work around 2016 /2017. In 2018, TSMC used them to make 7 Nm fleas, then Apple, AMD and NVIDIA follow suit.
In parallel, ASML continues to integrate its value chain, it buys Burn (USA, lasers Duv and Euv), Hermes Microvision (Taiwan, Wafers inspection) and Berliner Glas (Germany, high precision optics). The company becomes an industrial system alone, mobilizing more than 100 suppliers spread over three continents.
Each EUV machine costs between $ 150 and 200 million, and can exceed 350 million for the latest generations High-na. Their complexity is such that they are delivered by special cargo, piece per piece, in large carriers.
2020/2024: entry into geopolitics
The pandemic, the Sino-American tensions and the explosion of IA needs propels ASML to the front of the world scene. Company becomes a coveted and monitored strategic asset. Under pressure from the United States, the Dutch government blocked in 2019 the export of EUV machines to China and in 2023, these restrictions extend to older models.
Faced with these tensions, ASML strengthens its role as an institutional interlocutor, deploying public relations teams in Washington, Brussels and The Hague. In 2024, Christophe Fouquet is named CEO. Engineer and former boss of the EUV division, he embodies a new era where the company must combine industrial excellence and strategic diplomacy.
A unique, still fragile trajectory
ASML today employs more than 43,000 people, achieved 28.3 billion euros in turnover in 2023, and weighs nearly 260 billion euros on the stock market. It holds more than 80 % of the world market for advanced lithography. But its dominant position remains exposed in particular to the boom in competing technologies (especially in China), but also to geopolitical disturbances, and to increasing trade tensions between major powers.
Part of a prefabricated hangar, the company is today a Critical knot of the global digital infrastructure. To conclude, and this is undoubtedly one of the great lessons in the history of ASML, its trajectory shows what a European industrial ecosystem can produce when it benefits from time, vision and autonomy. An exemplary course, which imposes respect, and poses a strategic question: how to make ASML not only an industrial success, but a real flagship of European technological sovereignty?
