(Editor’s note: This edition of the Eindhoven Business Briefing is part of our Tech Tuesday series. Dispatches covers tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers, entrepreneurs and managers.)
At the Drinks, Pitches & Demos event last week, IO founder and DP&D emcee Bart Bowers threw out the “what if” question to the 100-plus people packed into the foyer of Lucis One/Building 91 on High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
“What if Elon Musk buys ASML?”
On 10 June, Musk, who took SpaceX public in the largest IPO in history, called in virtually to ASML’s “fireside chat” with CEO Christophe Fouquet, according to CNBC. Musk didn’t just call to say hello. The topic was Musk’s Terafab project to move SpaceX beyond rockets and into advanced chip manufacturing. Musk is projected to invest between $55 billion and $119 billion in Terafab, which would make logic chips, memory chips and photonic chips under one roof at a gigantic fab between Houston and Austin, Texas. For that, he needs ASML.
ASML, based in Eindhoven (I know, I know … it’s the quaint little village of Veldhoven), is the only company in the world that makes the $400 million machine needed for extreme ultraviolet lithography, essential to making the most advanced chips. Without ASML, the world’s three leading chip manufacturers — Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC), Samsung and Intel — can’t make 2 nanometer chips.
So, can Elon Musk buy ASML? In theory, yes. ASML is a publicly traded company with a 570 billion euro market cap, the 22nd largest company in the world ranked by value. In practice, it would be tough because the Dutch government would likely step in and try to block the sale. In 2024, Den Haag expanded regulations making more types of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment subject to national authorization. Also, ASML’s board of directors, top execs and shareholders would have to be on board for any deal including acquisition.
If Musk formed a syndicate to acquire all the shares and pay shareholders a premium, it wouldn’t strain the trillionaire or the PayPal Mafia alums likely to join such as Peter Thiel and Max Levchin (not to mention the merchant banks such as Goldman). And Musk wouldn’t have to acquire the whole thing, just controlling interest. Then Terafab would be free to do whatever from a merger to an RJR Nabisco-type stripping of assets,
At the Drinks, Pitches & Demos event, I opined that rather than the Dutch government fighting Musk, it should concentrate on finding and funding the next revolutionary compute tech. Photolithography and conventional chip making are fast approaching a singularity. Now, the latest way to build faster chips is to stack transistors. ASML is a monopoly biz, and I pointed out that never in history has a monopoly lasted forever. Now is as good a time as any to offload ASML on to some unsuspecting suckers.
So much for being Mr. Popularity.
–– Terry Boyd
High Tech Campus adds 51 companies
(Editor”s note:This list is courtesy of High Tech Campus Eindhoven.)
If Dutch economic development officials were going to look for the Next Big Thing, they would be smart to go to High Tech Campus.
Since the start of 2026, 51 companies have leased space at HTCE,
They include:
• Silicon Integrated, a high-tech startup company focused on high-performance mixed-signal IC design, has moved into building HTC 25.
• Puform, a deep-tech company that develops contactless measurement technology and software to quantify key fluid properties has joined they startup community at High Tech Plaza in building HTC 27.
• Return Storage, developing and operating large-scale energy storage systems across Europe, has moved into office space at building HTC 5.
• 1 Cube BV, operating as a comprehensive consultancy specializing in EU projects, is in the 3EALITY Spatial Computer Hub in HTC 37.
• Hitachi High-Tech Europe, providing technology solutions for for semiconductors, healthcare, the environment, materials and industrial and social infrastructure, has opened its new Innovation Center at building HTC 7.
• JKC Media, designing, developing and marketing websites with a focus on digital growth, has moved into building HTC 32.
• Jupiter SR, active in spatial reality 3D technology and providing immersive 3D display solutions, has joined 3EALITY Spatial Computing Hub at building HTC 37.
• Sparke & Keane, supporting organizations with strategy consulting, lean project and program management, finance and control and digital transformation and business Intelligence, now located on the 8th floor of building HTC 91.
• IS-Wireless develops ultra-resilient Private 5G and 6G networks designed for dual-use: defense and high-demand commercial applications, has joined the AI Innovation Center at building HTC 5.
• i2d consulting, a technology consulting, staffing and recruitment company helping organizations access the right expertise in AI, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Applications, Embedded Systems, IT Staffing & Recruitment, moved into new offices at HTC 32.
• GlobalFoundries, a multinational semiconductor foundry, has moved into office space at building HTC 41.
• VitalFluid in Building HTC 25, has closed a 17.2 million euros Series A round to accelerate the international rollout of its plasma-based crop protection technology, the company announced last week.
The round was co-led by Invest-NL and Alder Tree Investments, with Invest-NL contributing four million euros. Existing shareholders Horticoop, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries, VDL Groep and Goeie Grutten Impact Fonds also joined. The round includes a 2.7 million euro innovation credit from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). This is the second investment in two years for the startup, after a five million euro round in April 2024.
VitalFluid was founded in 2014 by Paul Leenders and Polo van Ooij as a spin-out from Eindhoven University of Technology. Since 2020, they have built the team and operations from High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
• RIFT has raised a total of 113.8 million euros to scale Iron Fuel Technology and move into commercial deployment. RIFT technology works like a rechargeable battery: iron powder burns cleanly to produce heat, “then regenerates from iron oxide using hydrogen — completing the circular cycle,” according to the website.
With this round, RIFT is starting its first commercial project, aimed at decarbonizing industrial heat at scale.The funding consists of an 83.1 million euro Series B round led by PGGM, with participation from Invest-NL (supported by the InvestEU programme), and regional development agency Oost NL. Rubio Impact Ventures, BOM and the Energietransitiefonds Rotterdam also participated. In addition, RIFT was selected for a 31 million euro project under the EU Innovation Fund.
We know of several more significant raises, but have been sworn to secrecy. Stand by for big reveals.
Biz briefs
• Speaking of Mr. Popularity, the chairman of Stihl, the German chainsaw maker, just took himself out of contention by suggesting that Germans need to work harder and longer. Dr Nikolas Stihl calls for reforms, including a 40-hour working week without extra pay to safeguard Germany’s prosperity and welfare state.
For Stihl, the key issue is increasing the volume of work – in other words, Germans need to work more again: “If we want to maintain our prosperityand keep social benefits at a high level, the total volume of work in the economy has to increase. A higher volume of work boosts economic output. In that sense, the debate about more work is a debate about preserving our prosperity, and by no means a debate about employees being lazy.”
• No biz sector stays static and that’s especially true of computing. Friday in Berlin, executives at Silicon Valley-based chip designer AMD launched what they describe as a personal supercomputer designed and made for “a completely new era of computing driven by AI,” according to Euronews. AMD execs gave a demonstration of its potential by generating an entire 3D world and flight simulator from a single prompt.
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