Peter Wennink

ASML Holding N.V. (originally an abbreviation of Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) is a Dutch company that develops and manufactures photolithography machines used to produce integrated circuits. It is the largest supplier to the semiconductor industry and, as of 2026, the world's only manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which are required to manufacture the most advanced semiconductor chips. As of January 2026, ASML had a market capitalization of approximately $527 billion, making it Europe's largest technology company and one of its most valuable companies overall.

ASML was founded in 1984 as a joint venture between the Dutch technology companies Philips and ASM International and became an independent publicly traded company four years later. The company was established to complete development of a lithography machine that Philips had been developing internally, but initially had no market-ready products. ASML's first product, the PAS 2000, was a commercial and technical failure, but the company achieved commercial success in the early 1990s with the PAS 5500. By 2002, it had become the world's largest supplier of lithography machines.

Meanwhile, in 1997, ASML began developing its EUV lithography technology. To help fund the expensive research and development required, Intel invested $4.1 billion in ASML in July 2012 in exchange for a 15 percent stake. Samsung and TSMC subsequently acquired smaller stakes under the same co-investment program. ASML completed development of the first commercially viable EUV machines in the late 2010s. During the 2010s and 2020s, the governments of the Netherlands and the United States imposed increasingly stringent controls on ASML's sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, citing concerns including national security and the protection of advanced semiconductor technology.

ASML's corporate headquarters are in Veldhoven, near Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, where the company conducts research and development and manufactures and assembles its products. Additionally the company has offices in more than a dozen countries. ASML employs more than 42,000 people and has a network of nearly 5,000 direct suppliers.