How ASML's CEO plans to keep pace with soaring AI demand

CEO’s next big test is whether he can lead a transition from what's known as extreme ultraviolet lithography

- Bloomberg [e-mail]

Christophe Fouquet, chief executive officer of ASML Holding NV.

(BLOOMBERG)

When Christophe Fouquet interviewed for a job at ASML Holding NV in 2007, he had an unusual request: Could he take a position one rung below what the Dutch company was offering? He wanted to study the technical details of the new chip-making machines ASML sold to tech giants like Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. After he was hired the next year, he spent weeks pouring over the product catalog until he could recite key features by heart.

“Even today when I meet with my customers, we talk about very specific things,” says the 52-year-old, who took over as ASML’s chief executive officer in 2024. “You need to understand what they do. You need to be able to explain what you are doing to solve their problem. That was the reason I said, ‘Give me a bit of time to learn’.”

Today, much depends on Fouquet and his company’s ability to navigate technology's frontiers. ASML is the foundation on which much of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom—indeed much of the tech industry—has been built over the past few years. It manufactures machines needed to produce the most advanced chips for Nvidia Corp., which in turn run the AI models for OpenAl, Microsoft Corp. and pretty much every other competitor in the field. Its share at the premium end of this market is a cool 100%, higher than Nvidia’s for AI chips or OpenAl's for chatbots.