ASML's Washington Talks and a 20,000-Seat Campus: Two Bets on the Same Future
Published on 09/26/2026 at 04:10 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten has injected a note of optimism into the standoff over semiconductor export rules, telling reporters on Thursday that he had raised the MATCH Act with US President Donald Trump directly. Jetten's message was that a workable arrangement remains within reach — one that would spare ASML from fresh restrictions on its immersion lithography systems.
The legislative push in Washington, first flagged by Bloomberg, targets ASML's DUV immersion tools bound for China. Any tightening there would bite into a business line that underpins chipmaking capacity worldwide. Jetten said he had also held talks with members of Congress in an effort to head off new barriers for the Dutch equipment maker.
A Home Market That Isn't Buying
Even as The Hague lobbies on exports, ASML faces a quieter problem closer to home. Executive Vice President Frank Heemskerk said Tuesday that the company is currently selling no chipmaking machines in Europe at all. His explanation: no new fab construction, and no appetite to fund it. The US, China and India, by contrast, are racing to expand capacity. Without fresh factory projects on the continent, ASML has nothing to sell into.
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That gap sits awkwardly beside the company's global momentum. Samsung Electronics said on 8 September that it will widen its strategic partnership with ASML to fold High-NA EUV systems into mass production of advanced DRAM by 2028. Intel Foundry, meanwhile, has already run more than a million wafers through the new tools during test and development work on processors.
Building for the Next Generation
ASML is putting money behind that pipeline. Construction began on 8 September on a second major industrial campus in the Brainport region, a site covering roughly 350,000 square metres and designed to accommodate as many as 20,000 workers. The expansion is meant to secure capacity for the most advanced lithography the industry will need in the years ahead.
Alongside the bricks and mortar, the company keeps returning cash to shareholders. On Monday it disclosed the repurchase of 304,500 of its own shares from the previous trading week, a package worth EUR 427,767,898. Buybacks of that scale tighten the free float and give earnings per share a durable lift — a steady support for investors even when broader markets wobble. On the prior day, rising bond yields and firmer oil prices had weighed noticeably on European equities.
A Cautious Tape
Friday's session reflected the mixed signals. ASML closed up 0.9% at EUR 1,527.20, leaving the stock 13% below its 52-week high. Traders now have their eyes fixed on how the talks between The Hague and Washington unfold — the outcome that will shape ASML's longest-term prospects.
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