Veldhoven-based ASML Holding, a manufacturer of chip-making equipment, along with the Municipality of Eindhoven, announced on Monday that they have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to explore the feasibility of developing a location for ASML as part of its long-term global growth strategy on the ‘Brainport Industry Campus’ (BIC) Eindhoven.
Though the deal is not yet finalised, the decision comes after the Dutch government announced last month that it would spend $2.7B (approximately €2.5B) to improve infrastructure in the Eindhoven region to prevent the company from moving its significant operations abroad.
“We welcome the recent action taken by the Dutch (caretaker) government to show commitment to improving the Dutch investment environment as we believe this will benefit the Netherlands as a whole. We hope that the plans and investments as presented will be supported by Parliament as they strongly support business conditions and our potential expansion plans at BIC,” says the company’s spokesperson to SiliconCanals.
Focus on the Brainport Industries Campus
A spokesperson for the city confirmed that the letter has been signed for a major expansion of “Brainport Industries Campus,” a technology campus located in the north of the city close to Eindhoven’s airport, reports Reuters.
“The potential development of ASML at BIC North will have a positive influence on the region as a center for the European high-tech industry. It will likely lead to significant job growth in all 21 Brainport municipalities and beyond, with direct and indirect suppliers and other producers and service providers. In addition to the support by the Dutch caretaker government, the business community – in which ASML will play a leading role – will contribute significantly to social investments to ensure sustainable and balanced growth,” adds the spokesperson.
According to the proposal, around €1.06B will be spent on infrastructure improvements, including expanding the Eindhoven Centraal train station, with better connections to domestic and international train services, as well as more express buses.
One bus will connect the station to Veldhoven, where ASML is headquartered. The aim is to connect all the high-tech campuses in the region with more funds earmarked for road and highway improvements.
The plan also proposes a budget of €425M to build and develop 20,000 homes by 2030. The funding will be used to enhance the quality of life in the area where the new homes will be constructed.
Expansion of the existing campus will continue
However, the expansion of ASML’s existing campus in Veldhoven at De Run will proceed as scheduled.
It is anticipated that further investments will be made in production and office spaces at this site over the next few years.
“The scaling of ASML’s operations at both locations will be decided based on our business requirements, while also taking into account the interests of other stakeholders, such as governments and communities,” says the spokesperson.
“ASML has a long-term location strategy to enable expansion and support the growth of our customers. As we have said before, ASML prefers to keep its core activities in the Netherlands as close as possible to the existing locations in Veldhoven, as this will promote collaboration between the teams and different units, which is necessary to stimulate innovation. BIC is an interesting option for us that we are now exploring together with the municipality of Eindhoven,” says Roger Dassen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at ASML.
“Decisions about future locations of our company must be supported by favorable conditions, such as the availability of talent, infrastructure, housing and by a strong investment climate in general. The recently announced government measures contribute to this. ASML is also actively involved in addressing these issues and in this way ensuring sustainable growth that benefits everyone,” he adds.
The announcement comes after large businesses expressed discontent with domestic policies in the Netherlands.
NXP and ASML, the latter being the third largest company in Europe by market capitalisation, have shown interest in relocating some of their operations outside the Netherlands.
ASML: What you need to know
Founded by Martin van den Brink in 1984, ASML is the provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or chips.
ASML provides chipmakers with hardware, software, and mass services to produce the patterns of integrated circuits (microchips).
Headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, ASML has offices across Europe, the US, and Asia.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/asml-intends-to-expand-in-eindhoven/
