The Dutch government is planning to make a multi-billion dollar investment in the region of Eindhoven to stop extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) company ASML from leaving the country.
In a statement last week, economic affairs minister, Micky Adriaansens, confirmed the €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) spending package dubbed ‘Project Beethoven’ will be used to improve housing, education, and transport routes, in addition to dealing with electric grid capacity shortages in the suburb.
ASML is the sole supplier in the world of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines that are needed to make the most advanced 3nm and 5nm chips. Based in the Eindhoven suburb of Veldhoven, Netherlands, ASML is both the country’s and Europe’s, most valuable tech company.
However, in March, alarm bells were raised within the Dutch government after ASML’s CEO Peter Wennink publicly complained that the government had failed to invest in improving infrastructure in Eindhoven. The company also criticized a number of policies the government was pursuing, including plans to end tax breaks for skilled migrants which would make it harder for the company to hire staff.
There were reportedly concerns that if the Dutch government did not address the issues raised by ASML, when Wennink retires in April, his replacement, French national Christophe Fouquet, could have sought to relocate some of the company’s operations to France.
In her statement, Adriaansens said: “The government expects that these measures [outlined in Project Beethoven] will lead ASML to continue to invest and base its operations in the Netherlands, including for statutory and tax purposes.”
ASML has been at the center of the US government’s ongoing trade war with China, with the Dutch government increasingly succumbing to pressure from the Biden administration to block exports of ASML products to China. First, it banned ASML from selling its most advanced equipment to China and then in January 2024, it revoked an export license to stop the shipment of two older lithography machines to Chinese customers.
Chinese companies bought 46 percent of ASML's lithography systems sold in the third quarter of 2023, generating around $3.7 billion in revenue between July and November of that year.
