IO’s week: is ASML getting too big for Veldhoven, Brabant, the Netherlands?

In our Sunday newsletter, we, as editors, reflect on the past seven days. We do this on the initiative of our cartoonist Albert Jan Rasker. He chooses a subject, draws a picture, and we take it from there.

Continuing to grow is no longer a given for ASML, Albert Jan also noticed. This year, the chip machine maker is taking a break, but solid growth is expected again from 2025 onwards. But the processing of that growth is no longer self-evident, as was clearly expressed last week at the presentation of the annual reports. Beyond the increasing resistance at the local level (“All those new employees, what does that mean for our schools, our housing, our traffic?”), every growing company in the Netherlands has to deal with a lack of space, lack of electricity, nitrogen restrictions, and a lack of talented employees. On top of that, recently, there has been an unfavorable political climate: a parliamentary majority prefers to close the borders to foreign students and talent as much as possible.

The threatening language of Peter Wennink (“we can still grow in the Netherlands, but we can also grow elsewhere“) and his CFO Roger Dassen is therefore only logical. Read our production around ASML’s annual results here:

• Chief financial officer ASML Roger Dassen: “We want to grow in the Netherlands, but we have to be able to do so”
• Peter Wennink: “Growth ASML depends on talent. If that is not available here, we will go where it is”
• Rise of ASML continues in 2023: revenue increased by a third

And while you’re at it… over 2,000 other channels around the world covered the topic 🙂

Here you can read what else caught our eye this week:

• Must-read of the week: A booming economy thanks to migrant workers: A lesson from Germany
• The Dutch innovation sector writes a petition to save the National Growth Fund from the hands of a negative parliamentary majority
• Former cabinet members call for safeguarding international cooperation in new coalition
• Professor Pepijn Pinkse: “The best time to get quantum security in order was yesterday.”
• Netherlands loses economic ground due to lagging R&D investments
• High water levels in the Netherlands. ‘From now on we throw a die with two sixes’
• Grid congestion in Bergeijk: first get the data right, then room to grow
• Scandinavia is Europe’s green leader
• Away with boring asphalt and concrete. This is what cities would look like if we copied from nature

Enjoy your week!