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No. ASML gives Europe a strategically important position in semiconductor manufacturing, but it does not make Europe self-sufficient in chips. Lithography leadership is one capability in a much wider chain that includes chip design, factories, materials, components, suppliers and customers—and resilience depends on whether those pieces remain accessible during a crisis.
Why is ASML strategically important?
ASML, headquartered in the Netherlands, makes industrial equipment used to manufacture semiconductors. Its lithography systems are central to patterning features on silicon wafers; its product portfolio also includes metrology and inspection systems. These are specialized factory tools, not devices consumers can buy or use directly.
The scale of ASML’s business illustrates the importance of this position, but sales figures describe equipment sold, not chip output or Europe’s share of manufacturing capacity.
| Reporting period | Reported systems | Other reported figures |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 583 net system sales: 44 EUV lithography systems, 374 DUV systems, and 165 metrology and inspection systems. | 5,150 suppliers, according to ASML’s 2024 annual-report highlights. |
| 2025 | 535 system sales, as reported in ASML’s 2025 annual report. | €32.7 billion in total net sales under US GAAP; €4.7 billion in research and development. |
The 2024 and 2025 system counts cover different reporting periods; neither is a measure of revenue, installed base or chip-production capacity. The figures also do not establish a current market-share percentage. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet wrote in the 2025 annual report, “Innovation is the engine of ASML – the key to both our past and future successes.”
What does technological sovereignty mean in this case?
Technological sovereignty does not have to mean making every component within Europe or shutting out global trade. For semiconductors, a more practical test is whether Europe can develop, obtain and use the technologies that matter to its economy—and keep doing so when ordinary supply routes are disrupted.
That test spans several distinct capabilities:
- Design and research: the expertise and intellectual property used to develop chips and manufacturing processes.
- Manufacturing: factories able to produce both advanced chips and mature or specialised chips used in products such as cars, aircraft, telecom equipment and defence systems.
- Equipment and inputs: lithography tools, other production equipment, materials, components and the services needed to keep factories operating.
- Demand and deployment: European industries able to adopt and use the chips and technologies they need.
- Crisis readiness: the ability to respond when geopolitical tension, export restrictions or a physical disruption limits access to equipment or materials.
ASML’s position is strongest in an important equipment segment. That is meaningful leverage and capability, but it is not control of every stage in this list.
Why doesn’t a European equipment leader make the whole chain European?
ASML depends on international inputs
ASML says approximately 80% of its bill of materials comes from a global supplier network. Its 2025 annual report also identifies reliance on a limited number of critical suppliers and manufacturing facilities as business risks. The company’s 2024 report listed 5,150 suppliers, but a supplier count does not show where each input is made, how easily it can be replaced or how concentrated a particular critical component may be. The cited reports do not provide a complete component-by-component map or national shares, so they cannot support claims about specific unverified single-source suppliers.
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The European Court of Auditors’ 2025 special report on the EU’s microchip strategy describes how Russia’s war against Ukraine disrupted global neon supplies used in laser lithography. It also points to Taiwan’s and China’s substantial roles in the semiconductor supply chain and to continuing insecurity around cross-strait tensions. Such exposure can affect Europe even when a strategically important equipment maker is based in Europe.
In other words, the relevant question is not only who owns a leading company. It is whether the necessary factories, inputs, logistics and expertise remain available across the wider chain.
How do export controls on ASML work?
ASML cannot sell every system to every customer without regard to regulation. Licensing requirements depend on the equipment, destination, end user and applicable national and EU rules; rules for one product category should not be assumed to apply identically to all ASML systems.
The November 2025 EU list change
ASML’s 2025 annual report says that in November 2025 the EU incorporated certain Dutch national controls into the EU Control List. That change made licenses necessary for specified equipment, including DUV immersion systems exported outside the EU. ASML says those systems already required a Netherlands license, so the EU list update did not change the licensing requirement for the company.
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The broader coordination and trade-off
The European Court of Auditors’ 2025 report places equipment restrictions in a wider sequence: advanced-equipment controls followed US measures announced in 2022, and Japan and the Netherlands agreed to additional curbs in March 2023. The auditors note that negotiations often take place at member-state level. They also record stakeholder concerns that controls can disrupt supply chains, raise production costs and delay equipment access. Those are documented concerns, not a measured effect that can be assumed for every control or transaction.
ASML’s December 2, 2024 statement on updated US controls said the expected impact on its 2025 outlook was within the company’s previously communicated range. It also discussed possible exposure if Dutch authorities reached a similar security assessment about certain DUV immersion exports. That was a dated corporate outlook, not an independent impact assessment or a forecast that should be treated as timeless.
What is the EU proposing to do?
Chips Act 2.0
The European Commission’s 2026 Chips Act 2.0 proposal identifies two problems: “overdependence on third countries for semiconductor design and manufacturing” and “insufficient crisis preparedness capabilities.” It proposes strengthening competitiveness and resilience across the semiconductor value chain while improving crisis preparedness and security of supply.
The proposal covers both cutting-edge and mature semiconductor technologies. That breadth matters because specialised and mature-node chips are important to sectors including automotive, aeronautics, defence, telecom and cloud. The Commission says the first Chips Act was predominantly supply-driven and that the revision would put greater emphasis on demand-side measures as well as supply.
A wider technology package
In a communication published June 3, 2026, the Commission presented four linked initiatives: Chips Act 2.0, a Cloud and AI Development Act, an EU Open Source Strategy and a strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in energy. The package describes an approach that extends from chips through infrastructure and software to cloud and AI.
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These are proposed measures and stated policy aims, not evidence that new capacity has already been built or that Europe can already withstand a supply shock. The Commission’s framing underscores that sovereignty depends on a connected set of capabilities, rather than on one company or technology alone.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What would make Europe more resilient?
The trade-off is not simply between relying on global markets and producing everything locally. Resilience means reducing the most consequential dependencies while preserving access to international suppliers and markets. The evidence points to several tests for whether policy is closing the gap:
- Coverage: Does capability extend beyond leading-edge logic and memory to the mature and specialised chips European industries also need?
- Value-chain depth: Are design, production, equipment, materials, components and end-user demand all addressed, rather than just factory construction?
- Substitutability and preparedness: Can critical inputs be replaced or rerouted, and are there credible plans for disruption? A large supplier network alone does not answer this.
- Proportionate controls: Do restrictions meet security aims while accounting for potential delays, added costs and supply-chain disruption?
- Delivery: Do proposals translate into demonstrated capability and crisis readiness? Announced objectives are not outcomes.
ASML gives Europe a major asset in semiconductor manufacturing equipment and a consequential role in global technology. Its international supplier dependence, alongside the wider exposure of chip production, shows why that asset is not the same thing as technological self-sufficiency. The Commission’s proposals address a broader challenge: building enough capability and preparedness across the chain to reduce strategic dependence without assuming that a global industry can be made risk-free or entirely domestic.
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