The Dutch government will spend $2.7 billion on infrastructure and education projects in the Eindhoven region after ASML threatens to move its operations overseas.
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According to an emailed statement from the Dutch government on Thursday, the $2.7 billion in funding will be spent upgrading the roads, bus, and train networks, educating technical workers, providing vocational training, funding housing projects, and more.
ASML is the company behind bleeding-edge EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machines, which Intel just took delivery of at the cost of $380 million for US semiconductor manufacturing. The Dutch government recently launched “Operation Beethoven,” which will keep Europe’s most valuable company –ASML — from expanding out of the Netherlands.
Earlier this month, ASML Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink said, “We have to come to the conclusion that we can grow responsibly in the Netherlands. And we have not yet drawn that conclusion.” Wennick will step down next month, and Christophe Fouquet, a French national, will take over as CEO of ASML.
The Dutch government said: “With these measures, the government assumes that ASML will make further investments in the Netherlands and maintain the location of its statutory, tax, and actual headquarters in the Netherlands“.
Monique Mols, the head of ASML media relations, said in a statement published by Bloomberg: “We have a preference to achieve a significant part of our expansion plans in the Netherlands, provided that such expansion plans are supported by favorable business conditions. The plans presented today, if supported by parliament, strongly support those business conditions, and will continue to work with the Dutch government to finalize our decision making regarding our expansion“.
ASML has around 23,000 employees right now, with 40% of them not from Dutch. Europe’s largest technology company — ASML — sources parts from all around the planet, assembling its high-end machines in Veldhoven, Netherlands, before it ships them out to its companies across the world. Intel was its most recent company, receiving a new Twinscan EXE:5000 High-NA lithography machine worth $380 million for US production