After record results in 2025 (32.7 billion euros in turnover, 9.7 billion euros in profit), ASML is launching an internal reorganization that will cost 1,700 jobs, mainly in the Netherlands. The chip machine maker has thatWednesday morningannounced.
ASML is in the middle of a hectic growth period. It doubled its workforce in less than seven years and now has more than 44,000 employees. The company builds chip machines that produce the very fastest AI chips, among other things, and is growing rapidly due to the increasing demand for processors and memory chips for artificial intelligence. As a result, ASML’s advanced EUV machines are in high demand. Chip manufacturers from Taiwan and South Korea in particular ordered more.
The arrival of so many new people has not been without fits and starts: they have to be trained and the structure of the company has not become any clearer. Both suppliers and chip manufacturers complain about this. ASML’s own developers also feel that they have to deal with too much hassle. “Our engineers, who are responsible for innovation, spend 20 to 30 percent of their time on meetings and consultations,” said CEO Christophe Fouquet on Wednesday in an explanation of the ASML figures.
The reorganization must prepare ASML for the innovation that is needed to stay ahead of emerging Chinese competitors
Of the 44,000 ASML employees, 16,000 work in technology departments, mainly development & engineering. This is the heart of the organization, where the machines and associated software are designed. There are now 4,500 people in management positions, and that number must be reduced, according to ASML. With so many managers, the organization is in danger of becoming top-heavy.
Of those 4,500 managers, 3,000 will disappear. Of these, 1,400 will return to work as engineers, and 1,600 will lose their jobs. The latter also applies to a hundred people in the IT department, where a similar efficiency drive is taking place. “We are not doing this because there is not enough money, or to save costs,” said Fouquet.
The result of this operation is that personnel growth at ASML is slowing down. Previous predictions assumed a doubling of the number of employees in the so-called Brainport region around Eindhoven and Veldhoven, to 40,000 employees in 2030. It appears that this increase will slow down if engineers can work more efficiently. “But we are growing,” financial director Roger Dassen added on Wednesday morning. “After all, people are also needed in the production departments who assemble the chip machines.”
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At ASML, originally a matrix organization, teams compete for the highest budgets and the smartest people. That is changing: the intention is for technicians to remain linked to one specific business unit for longer. That gives them more time to focus on innovation and to meet less, Fouquet expects.
Plans to change ASML’s internal structure have existed for some time, but the company waited to make changes until Fouquet took over as CEO in 2024. He started the renewal project after ASML’s top executives Peter Wennink and Martin van den Brink retired.
Both chip manufacturers and suppliers have difficulty penetrating the poorly organized ASML organization. Departments often work at cross purposes. For example, in 2021, ASML’s new central warehouse turned out not to function properly due to software errors, as a result of which the supply of chip machines was halted for months. Inadequate communication turned out to be the cause.
Extreme ultraviolet light
One of the projects that the ASML engineers are focusing on is the development of a new ‘EUV platform’. Lithography with EUV, extreme ultraviolet light, is a technique that ASML is now the only one to master and the reason it achieves such good results: you need EUV to produce fast AI chips. The intention is that one umbrella system will be able to supply all EUV variants in ten years’ time: low-NA (currently common), high-NA (the upcoming technology) and Hyper-NA: a technology that is still under development.
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Last year, ASML invested 4.7 billion euros in research and development. The reorganization of that department should prepare the company for further growth and the innovation needed to stay ahead of Chinese competitors. China wants to reduce its dependence on ASML machines and is investing a lot of money in developing its own lithography technology. This competition is still in its infancy, but ASML wants to maintain its lead and market leadership. The company also announced on Wednesday that it would allocate 12 billion euros to buy up its own shares over the next three years.
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