ASML, the Dutch company whose machines sit inside almost every advanced chip factory in the world, is currently selling none of them in Europe. Frank Heemskerk, the executive responsible for ASML’s global public affairs, said the company has no chipmaking machine sales on the continent right now, simply because nobody there is building chip plants to put them in.“We are not selling anything in Europe at all. That is because Europe is not investing, and no chip factories are being built here,” Heemskerk said. He added that the United States, China and India are all trying to persuade ASML to expand its operations in their countries. The remark comes as the European Union works on a revision of its semiconductor law, and it puts a hard number on a problem Brussels has been circling for years: zero.
Europe’s Chips Act has not delivered the chip factories it promised
The EU Chips Act took effect in 2023, shaped by the global chip shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its headline goal was to double Europe’s share of the global chip market by 2030.That target now looks out of reach. The European Court of Auditors concluded last year that the EU is unlikely to hit it, and the law has done little to get new semiconductor factories built in Europe.For ASML, the gap is commercial as much as political. The company is the only maker of the advanced lithography machines needed to produce the latest generation of chips. Customers like TSMC and Samsung Electronics use them to print transistor patterns onto silicon wafers, which makes ASML a key link in the supply chain behind today’s AI chips.
The US, China and India are competing for ASML’s chipmaking machines
While Europe sits out, other regions are spending heavily on domestic semiconductor industries. China alone was expected to account for more than 25% of ASML’s total sales in 2025, according to Shen Bo, president of ASML China, who spoke last November.India is part of the same race, with its first large chip plants coming up in Gujarat and Assam. The US, meanwhile, has for years pushed the Netherlands to block some of ASML’s most advanced machine sales to China, a reminder that ASML’s order book is shaped by geopolitics as much as by demand.
ASML’s top executives have been warning Brussels for months
Heemskerk’s comment is the latest in a string of pointed remarks from ASML’s leadership. In January, CEO Christophe Fouquet told Europe to be “realistic” about tech sovereignty, arguing that the chip ecosystem is spread across the world and that some imports will always be needed. On the same day, ASML posted better-than-expected results and announced 1,700 job cuts.Chief financial officer Roger Dassen went further in October 2025. He blamed EU regulation for driving AI talent abroad, saying a skilled engineer’s first move is often “buying a ticket to Silicon Valley.” ASML had just become the largest shareholder in French AI company Mistral with a €1.3 billion investment.Heemskerk himself has said, quoting a former company executive, that it is easier to get a senior White House meeting than one with an EU commissioner.ASML and Brussels are now looking at ways to boost demand for semiconductors and make supply chains more resilient. The fix Heemskerk points to has little to do with ASML itself. Europe’s biggest chip company will find customers at home only when someone in Europe starts building a fab.
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