{"id":641815,"date":"2026-10-01T17:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641815\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T17:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:14:18","slug":"cornering-the-market-for-machines-that-make-nvidias-ai-chips-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641815\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornering the market for machines that make Nvidia\u2019s AI chips \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone worried about the short-termism of the technology sector, the bravado of so many tech bros and the easy prickability of the AI<\/a> bubble should take a reality-check trip to Veldhoven, the unremarkable Dutch<\/a> municipality that is home to Europe\u2019s biggest company.<\/p>\n

ASML, arguably the most consequential yet low-profile company in the AI ecosystem, employs nearly half the town (population: 47,902) and another 25,000 besides, doing the no-nonsense work of making and marketing the ever-larger machines that churn out ever-smaller computer chips.<\/p>\n

As for the company\u2019s chief executive, Christophe Fouquet, a tech bro he most certainly is not. This grounded French physicist is both a refreshing antidote to the salesmen of Silicon Valley and a more convincing advocate for the durability of technological advance.<\/p>\n

The secret of this 42-year-old company\u2019s success, Fouquet tells me in a nondescript meeting room at ASML\u2019s headquarters, has been teamwork. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to summarise it, this has been a lot about extreme co-operation with the ecosystem, which is, first, our customers, but also our supply chain,\u201d he explains, portraying ASML as the epitome of the collaborative European company, in stark contrast to a thrusting American one.<\/p>\n

ASML, though still unknown by many people outside the tech sector, is an increasingly crucial linchpin in the global manufacture of chips. It has an extraordinary share of the market for chipmaking lithography machines, including a total monopoly on the most advanced extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, machines that are essential in the manufacture of chips for complex AI applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s been a bit of a catch-up moment for a large part of the world, how a few companies have become critical for the future of the entire economy,\u201d Fouquet says, pointing to the 88 per cent jump in the company\u2019s share price over the past year and its market value of \u20ac591 billion.<\/p>\n

He explains how investors enthused by Nvidia<\/a>\u2019s AI vision for chip design first realised how vital Taiwan\u2019s TSMC was to the manufacture of those chips. \u201cAnd then they started to wonder, \u2018Oh, by the way, how does TSMC make those chips?\u2019 And then they realised that they used this EUV machine [and] suddenly everyone realises there is only one company, ASML, making those machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a competitive global economy, how on earth did the world allow only one company in a small Dutch town to become another AI choke point to add to the squeezes on data centre<\/a> construction and energy supply? <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complexity really,\u201d Fouquet says, and I remember the jaw-dropping physics behind the $400 million (\u20ac352 million) EUV machine I had seen earlier in the day. The size of a double-decker bus, the machine prints circuits on to silicon wafers by firing 60,000 droplets of molten tin per second at them, using mirrors, lasers and short-wave light in a kind of vacuum-sealed nano-photocopier.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur customers were asking themselves … \u2018If I only have one supplier, am I okay?\u2019 … You could always say, \u2018I\u2019m going to get a second one\u2019, but the amount of learning, the amount of investment and the amount of time you need to create that is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

So trust is essential. \u201cOur profit will grow with the [profits] of the industry but we are not going to abuse the situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

He admits \u201cthis is sometimes a difficult discussion\u201d with shareholders: they might prefer the company to boost profit margins and put more debt on the balance sheet to accelerate investment and juice returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have that question every day … But it\u2019s not about the money, that\u2019s the beauty of it. If I could put a few billion down and get another 20 per cent capacity, I would do that. But because of the supply chain, it\u2019s far more complex than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

ASML\u2019s supply chain is something else. Where a typical industrial product might have a few dozen suppliers, an ASML EUV has more than 100,000 parts provided by 200 principal suppliers and 2,000 companies overall. That, Fouquet says, might limit the ability to increase production rapidly, but it has been key to the company\u2019s performance, as the science has become ever more elaborate. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe more complex our products became … the more advantage we got in terms of competitiveness. We could [develop] a lot faster than anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than trying to make everything itself, ASML outsources to the best manufacturer of each component \u2013 Zeiss for optics, Trumpf for lasers, VDL for mechatronics. This has helped it crack problems that its competitors, notably Japanese groups Nikon and Canon, have failed to, leaving them focused only on previous-generation deep ultraviolet (DUV) technology. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really needed the best brands across the world to get it done. I can tell you, if we had taken it upon ourselves … to do everything on EUV, there is no way we could have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On occasion, when suppliers have looked vulnerable, ASML has bought them to safeguard production. Laser maker Cymer, acquired in 2013, was one example. More recently ASML has taken an 11 per cent stake in French AI challenger Mistral. But collaboration normally trumps acquisition.<\/p>\n

There is one big fly in the ointment: the US government. Its ban on exporting EUV technology to China blocks ASML from selling its most advanced, most profitable products to an AI market that is second only to the US. <\/p>\n

Although president Donald Trump<\/a> has no direct jurisdiction over ASML (and is far less strict on Nvidia, which is allowed to sell its own EUV-made chips to China), the US has put pressure on the EU and on the Dutch government to impose an embargo on ASML \u2013 a source of clear frustration for the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that some technology may be restricted for obvious and legitimate concerns but if we go too far, we are going to create the opposite results of what we\u2019re trying to achieve in the first place,\u201d says Fouquet. Namely, he says, China will be spurred to innovate itself.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rules of AI etiquette: be upfront, check accuracy, and don\u2019t burden people with \u2018workslop\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Huawei recently emerged as a pivotal force in China\u2019s development of DUV machines, for example. \u201cIf you over-restrict, you bring desperation,\u201d he goes on, no longer mild-mannered but exercised now. \u201cAnd desperation creates a huge appetite for people to accelerate their own technology and, potentially, at some point, become strong competitors.\u201d <\/p>\n

So is that his message to Trump?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a message to Trump. It\u2019s a message to all people who make those decisions,\u201d he says bluntly. \u201cI think the Dutch government decides for itself what it wants to export, or not, to China. So that\u2019s first a message to the Dutch government [and] a message for the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have yet to discuss the most cliched question of all: whether AI \u2013 and thus the demand for the EUV machines and the other tech that underpins it \u2013 is a bubble ripe for bursting.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Google fights EU attempt to open Android to rival AIOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fouquet admits the markets are jittery. But he insists this is no short-term sugar rush: the AI \u201crevolution\u201d will endure. \u201cI think the AI effect on society and industry is going to take 10 to 15 years. We\u2019re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

ASML is confident its EUV technology will evolve over a similar period. Transistor circuits will be stacked on top of each other. Mirror apertures will be increased to focus light more precisely. <\/p>\n

Fouquet presents himself as an accidental chief executive, a career semiconductor engineer who just grew with the industry. After studies in Grenoble and London, he worked in Israel and the US before landing at ASML 18 years ago and becoming the boss two years ago. (Having a physicist in charge again, after a financial manager, was a relief, confides one colleague.)<\/p>\n

What tech is he most excited about now? \u201cHumanoids will be among us … a few years from now,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are just at the beginning of that cycle. [They] will be doing some of the tasks we all hate doing \u2013 the gardening, or emptying the dishwasher.\u201d (He skates over my protest that many people love gardening.)<\/p>\n

But what about truly transformative inventions? <\/p>\n

He is enthusiastic about the scope for \u201cspace tech\u201d to revolutionise telecoms and energy production. But does he believe, for example, that nuclear fusion is finally within commercial reach? Are there lessons to learn from ASML\u2019s success in developing a pioneering technology such as EUV after 20 years of trying? <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark O’Connell: For 10 years, I\u2019ve listened to people say AI will kill us all. Here\u2019s what I thinkOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFor EUV.\u201d Fouquet explains, \u201cASML thought the need would be absolutely there, therefore we put all our energy in it, almost at some point putting even the company at risk to get it done. I don\u2019t think that you have that in some of those technologies [such as fusion]. You need at some point people to believe that this is absolutely critical to get it done.\u201d <\/p>\n

And rather than \u201c200 people or 200 companies\u201d pursuing the idea with splintered inefficiency, you need a monomania, \u201c[you need] concentration when it comes to technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all this highbrow talk, I\u2019m curious to know quite how the ASML boss reconciles running a company in the vanguard of the AI revolution with being a father to six children. <\/p>\n

Fouquet\u2019s answer is refreshingly unscientific. \u201cYou could see the children as a burden,\u201d he says. \u201cBut for me, it\u2019s always made me stronger because the time I spend with my family, the time that I spend outside this office, is my rebalancing art … It gives me joy, and I think coming to work with joy is a lot better than not.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone worried about the short-termism of the technology sector, the bravado of so many tech bros and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,8114,114,969,61,60,233,80,26693],"class_list":["post-641815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-asml","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nvidia","tag-technology","tag-tsmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}