The Light Maker ASML's future blueprint revealed! A glimpse into CEO Fouquet's global strategic perspective

As the AI boom drives overall chip demand upward while also raising questions about whether investments are overheating, the world’s most critical semiconductor equipment supplier, ASML, has been placed at the core of industry strategy. CEO Christophe Fouquet pointed out that in the face of accelerated AI development, process advancements gradually diverging from Moore’s Law, and geopolitical uncertainties, ASML has clearly outlined its technological direction for the next ten years or more. The company will continue to advance along EUV, High NA, and even next-generation technologies, while collaborating with customers long-term to align future industry pathways.

ChatGPT fuels AI boom, ASML becomes industry strategic core

Fouquet stated that chip demand has surged rapidly due to AI. With the advent of ChatGPT, tech giants are accelerating the construction of AI data centers, leading to a sharp increase in demand for the most advanced logic and memory chips. Consequently, ASML’s high-end equipment has become even more indispensable.

On the other hand, the market is beginning to question whether this wave of investment is overheated. Since NVIDIA’s market cap has declined from its peak, investors are worried whether huge capital expenditures can truly translate into commercial returns. In this environment, whether ASML can continue delivering advanced equipment has become a key variable for the entire AI industry.

Three core axes define the technological direction for the next decade

Facing market uncertainties, Fouquet calmly pointed out that ASML’s future roadmap for lithography technology is already quite clear. In the coming years, the focus of technological advancement will revolve around three areas:

Higher resolution

Higher precision

Greater production efficiency

He believes that as long as the company continues to push along these three axes, ASML can meet the long-term demands of customers for performance, power consumption, and cost.

Clear technological roadmap: from EUV to High NA and Hyper NA

Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) technology (EUV) has always been the cornerstone of ASML’s advanced process equipment. Currently, EUV has advanced from 7 nanometers to 3 nanometers, forming the basis for high-end chips from NVIDIA and Apple.

Building on this, ASML’s next technological focus is High NA EUV (High NA EUV), aiming to push process nodes below 2 nanometers, bringing key advantages such as performance improvements, reduced heat generation, and lower power consumption.

Intel received its first High NA EUV equipment in 2023, which is still in testing and system maturity phases. Fouquet said that the device’s performance in image quality and resolution has been validated, with the next focus on improving stability and long-term operation. ASML expects High NA EUV to enter high-volume production stages between 2027 and 2028. In the longer term, research on the next-generation Hyper NA technology is already underway.

[Image of ASML’s High NA EUV system]

AI customer pace accelerates, chip progress is diverging from Moore’s Law

Fouquet also admitted that AI customers’ expectations for chip performance improvements are rapidly increasing. Historically, the semiconductor industry followed Moore’s Law, doubling transistor counts approximately every two years. However, AI customers like NVIDIA now expect transistor growth to reach 16 times every two years.

This pace means equipment suppliers must not only keep up with existing standards but also prepare for an industry environment increasingly diverging from traditional development patterns.

Long-term collaboration established, future ten years aligned now

To avoid gaps in technology development, Fouquet personally participates in highly institutionalized long-term communication. He holds biannual high-level reviews with CEOs of clients like Intel and TSMC, and also participates in technical conferences to discuss process blueprints 10 years into the future.

During these meetings, chip manufacturers outline future product directions, while ASML provides corresponding equipment specifications, enabling early detection of potential gaps.

How to handle China’s technological lag, a core geopolitical challenge

Regarding future prospects, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet candidly stated that geopolitics is an unavoidable risk. China became ASML’s largest market last year, but under current restrictions, ASML is prohibited from selling all EUV equipment and the most advanced DUV equipment to China.

Currently, ASML’s equipment supplied to China is about eight generations behind the latest High NA EUV. Fouquet pointed out that this gap inevitably creates pressure and frankly said, “China will not accept being cut off from technology—that’s the reality.”

He indicated that the West could choose not to supply the most advanced technology, instead providing older-generation equipment to keep China lagging. But the real question is: how long should China remain behind? Fouquet warned that excessive pressure might ultimately force China to cease dependence on Western technology and develop independently. In the long run, this could mean the permanent loss of some trade relationships or even create new sources of competition.

He emphasized that the key issue is not whether to delay China’s technological development, but to what extent to delay it, and how to balance the delays, pressure, and long-term consequences—this is the core challenge that all parties must face.

This article “Light Makers: ASML’s Future Blueprint Exposed! A Glimpse into CEO Fouquet’s Global Strategy Perspective” first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.