lerts History
- 20 May 2026 03:00:40 PM - EXCLUSIVE-ASML CEO: STRONG AI DEMAND MEANS CHIPS WILL BE A 'SUPPLY-LIMITED MARKET' FOR QUITE A WHILE
- 20 May 2026 03:00:41 PM - ASML CEO: SPORADIC CHIP-SUPPLY BOTTLENECKS LIKELY, BUT COMPANY RAMPING UP CAPACITY
- 20 May 2026 03:00:42 PM - ASML CEO: HAS TALKED WITH ELON MUSK ABOUT PLANNED TERAFAB PROJECT, SAYING MUSK IS 'VERY SERIOUS'
- 20 May 2026 03:00:42 PM - ASML CEO: RULES ON SELLING CHIP-MAKING TOOLS TO CHINA SHOULD BE CONSISTENT, ARE A 'POLITICAL DECISION'
- 20 May 2026 03:00:42 PM - ASML CEO: EUROPE AI ACT NEEDS REFORM, REMOVAL; MUST AVOID 'SIMPLISTIC' RULES THAT CONSTRAIN TECH SUPPLY CHAIN
- 20 May 2026 03:00:43 PM - ASML CEO: NEXT GEN 'HIGH NA' TECH LIKELY TO SEE FIRST PRODUCT DATA ON BOTH LOGIC, DRAM PRODUCTS LATER THIS YEAR
- 20 May 2026 03:00:43 PM - ASML IS DEVELOPING NEW PACKAGING TOOL TO BOOST FUTURE CAPABILITIES IN THAT PART OF THE PROCESS, CEO SAYS
ASML CEO sees tight supply in booming chip market as AI demand soars - Reuters News
Sentiment:
Mostly Negative20 May 2026 03:00:49 PM
- ASML CEO: Chip market to remain supply-limited for a while
- EU should ease AI regulation to keep pace with US, Asia
- Calls for clear export control rules to China
- Fouquet had contact with Musk about TeraFab project
- ASML developing second advanced-packaging tool
- Expects first High NA EUV-made product within months
ANTWERP, Belgium, May 20 (Reuters) - The booming global semiconductor market will be "tense" with tight supply for the foreseeable future, the head of chip-making machine giant ASML ASML.AS told Reuters, with demand from AI, satellites and robots outpacing what the industry can produce.
In a rare interview on the sidelines of a tech event in Antwerp, ASML Chief Executive Christophe Fouquet said that there would likely be sporadic bottlenecks throughout the supply chain of the chip market which could hit $1.5 trillion by 2030.
"Demand on AI is coming so strongly that we will be in a supply-limited market for quite a while," Fouquet said, citing plans like Elon Musk's huge proposed "TeraFab" AI plan and Starlink satellites as potentially driving a new leg of demand.
ASML, Europe's most valuable firm, dominates the market for systems used to print the tiny circuitry on high-tech chips. Its most advanced tools are essential for producing logic chips used in AI, as well as the memory chips needed alongside them.
Tech firms are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build data centres packed with AI chips, forcing chipmakers like Nvidia NVDA.O partner TSMC 2330.TW, Samsung Electronics 005930.KS, SK Hynix 000660.KS, Micron MU.O and Intel INTC.O to rapidly ramp up capacity. All use ASML's tools.
Fouquet said ASML is boosting output and increasing the productivity of its tools as it tries to keep up, with new technology on the way. But he cautioned the size of the boom is hard to predict and could overwhelm industry planning.
MUSK'S TERAFAB, STARLINK WILL DRIVE HUGE CHIP DEMAND
Fouquet said a plan like Musk's TeraFab, a large-scale chip plant intended to supply Tesla TSLA.O, xAI and SpaceX, would stretch toolmakers' capacity over the coming years and it may materialize.
"He's very serious about all those projects," he said, adding he had talked with Musk, without providing details.
"One of the most fascinating projects for me is Starlink because we talk a lot about chips, humanoids, self-driving cars, and all those products have to be connected to data," he said.
Fouquet expects that the first logic chips will be made within months using ASML's new High NA EUV tool, which enables smaller chips and is set to be a key driver for the firm in the years ahead, with Intel set to be an early adopter.
Product data for both logic and memory chips made using High NA is coming this year, Fouquet said.
He said ASML is also developing a new advanced-packaging tool, its second, that will help manufacture physically large AI chips. The new products represent diversification for ASML.
"Right now it's a small leg," he said. "But in the future, this presents a new opportunity for ASML."
EU NEEDS TO CUT RED TAPE, REFORM AI ACT
Fouquet, one of Europe's most high-profile tech leaders, said the bloc risks being left behind in the industrial-adoption phase of AI due to red tape.
"People are attracted by the EU market, but they are usually scared about the amount of regulation and the complexity you have in Europe to do anything," he said, adding that the bloc should scrap or revamp its2023 AI Act.
He called for more consistent rules around exports of chipmaking equipment to China. U.S. lawmakers in April proposed a law forcing allies to abide by U.S. restrictions, including a potential ban on sales to China of DUV products made by ASML.
The Dutch government has protested. Fouquet said the lower-tech DUV tools it sells to China are based on technology introduced in 2015 - eight generations of chip technology ago.
He warned that tightening restrictions further would accelerate China's efforts to develop its own rival tools.
"If I put you in a desert and tell you you're not going to have access to food anymore — how long does it take you to make your own garden?" he said. "It's a matter of survival."
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Bernadette Baum)
(( amsterdam.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com ))
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026. Click For Restrictions - https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
Keywords: ASML-CEO/ (EXCLUSIVE, PIX, GRAPHIC)
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Germany to overhaul sprawling arms procurement agency
Move aims to speed up spending of country’s expanded defence budget
Germany has announced a sweeping overhaul of its sprawling arms procurement agency as Berlin strives to speed up spending under its vastly expanded defence budget.
The defence ministry said it would tear up the existing structures at the agency, known by its German acronym Baainbw, which in the past was notorious for taking years to reach decisions and imposing elaborate, custom-made requirements.
Defence minister Boris Pistorius said the overhaul was needed so “the enormous sums in the defence budget over the coming years can be spent quickly and efficiently”.
Pistorius said implementation would begin in the summer in a phased manner, because the change would essentially be like “open-heart surgery” on a huge organisation that would have to continue functioning while the restructuring took place.
But he said that they also had to act quickly at a time when the annual defence budget is set to balloon to €188bn by 2030, adding: “We do not have years to spare.”
An official familiar with the plans described it as “quite a revolution for a bureaucracy”.
The Baainbw, based in the western German city of Koblenz, has a staff of 13,000 people and its intricate demands in previous years have been dubbed “gold-plated solutions”.
The office has sped up its work dramatically since 2022, when Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led Berlin to promise to take a leading role in European defence and security, more than doubling its annual defence budget from €47bn in 2021 to €118bn this year.
Yet government officials and industry executives say the agency has remained a bottleneck, prompting last autumn Pistorius to commission a review of its structure, carried out over six months by his secretary for armaments, Jens Plötner.
Under the plans announced on Wednesday, existing Baainbw departments and divisions will be abolished and replaced with a new “matrix system” intended to mirror the armed forces divisions of land, air, sea and cyber.
Special groups of experts will be formed around weapons systems such as ammunition, artillery or guided missiles.
Regional offices will be set up around Germany with different specialisms, as well as a representative office in Brussels to improve networking with the EU and Nato, and co-ordinate multinational programmes.
Pistorius said the new system would also ensure greater co-operation with industry, better supply chain oversight and improved price controls.
There would be more focus on innovation and future technologies, he said, as well as a special fast-track division to quickly buy urgently needed off-the-shelf products.
There would be a special division for dealing with complex projects such as fighter jets or warships, which have a history of cost overruns and delays.
Pistorius, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats that are the junior partner in Germany’s ruling coalition, said that he would “certainly not be cutting any jobs” at Baainbw. But he said that the objective was also not to allow the agency to expand. Instead, the focus will be on staffing the new regional offices and filling the hundreds of expert posts that are currently unfilled.
Some industry executives have voiced scepticism at the ability of reforms to work. They point to previous failed attempts, before the war in Ukraine, to overhaul the agency, which met with resistance from staff, unions and some politicians. But officials hope the political will behind the Zeitenwende — as the German pivot on defence is known — will help them succeed.
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Global equities headed for their longest losing streak in more than two months as mounting inflation concerns drove bond yields higher, pressuring stocks and prompting investors to rethink valuations after a record-breaking rally. MSCI’s All Country World Index slipped 0.2%, set for a fourth day of declines, as the firm’s Asia Pacific gauge dropped 1.1%. South Korea’s Kospi, a key barometer for artificial intelligence-related investments, fell more than 2%, with Samsung Electronics Co. declining after its labor union decided to go on strike. Futures indicating losses will spread to Europe and the US. Brent crude held above $111 a barrel, with no sign of easing in the Iran conflict. That’s stoked inflation concerns, weighing on government bonds globally. Yields on the 30-year Treasuries climbed to levels last seen in 2007 on concern elevated energy costs may push the Federal Reserve toward an interest-rate hike rather than a cut. Global stocks have retreated from all-time highs after investors spent weeks brushing aside concerns over the war in the Middle East on optimism that AI spending would continue to fuel corporate earnings growth. Attention is now turning to Nvidia Corp.’s earnings on Wednesday, with investors increasingly questioning whether the AI-driven rally has run too far, too fast. The 30-year yield climbed as high as 5.20% Wednesday, a level last seen during the global financial crisis. Longer-maturity government bond yields have surged to the highest levels in almost two decades, according to a Bloomberg gauge. The index, which tracks government bonds maturing in 10 years or longer, has dropped 4.6% this year on concern accelerating inflation will convince central banks to raise rates.
“The issue of rising bond yields is still something which could create problems for today’s expensive stock market,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.
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