ASML Eyes Dutch Expansion After Government Commits $2.7B

(Bloomberg) -- ASML Holding NV is weighing options to expand its presence in the Netherlands, after the government committed €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to infrastructure and education spending in the region where the company’s headquarters are located. 

The Veldhoven, Netherlands-based firm said Monday it signed a letter of intent with its home region of Eindhoven in the south of the country to explore expansion. A final decision is subject to ironing out a few “crucial points,” ASML spokeswoman Monique Mols said in an emailed statement. 

The Dutch government set up a taskforce and last month announced the spending after local media reported the country’s most valuable firm was considering expanding abroad. The Netherlands in the past has lost consumer goods behemoth Unilever Plc and oil giant Shell Plc when the two companies relocated their headquarters to the UK.

ASML, which makes the world’s most sophisticated lithography machines that are used to produce chips, aims to double its capacity by 2030 as it anticipates surging demand from the semiconductor sector to meet the boom in generative artificial intelligence.

ASML prefers to keep core activities in the Netherlands “as close as possible to existing sites in Veldhoven,” according to the statement, which said the company welcomed the government’s recent investment decisions. 

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Mols said that some of the outstanding issues before a binding commitment include power grid access, availability of housing and access to the road network.