(Editor’s note: The Eindhoven Business Briefing is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. Dispatches covers tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers and physicists.)
So, where do we stand as of the first of the year? There is a mix of good news and bad news. But in the final analysis, we see more of an inflection point rather than signs of weakness in the Eindhoven ecosystem. Disruption and renewal. Pivots and transition to new technologies.
In short, Eindhoven-based tech giants have shed a lot of jobs while projecting growth and making acquisitions.
• ASML, the financial engine of Eindhoven – if not the Netherlands and Europe as a whole – just announced they’re cutting 1,700 positions, or about 4 percent of the total 43,000 workforce AFTER reporting record orders. The job cuts are in its tech and IT operations, mostly in the Netherlands and some in the United States. But the majority of the cuts are in Eindhoven, according to multiple media reports.
• Eindhoven-based lighting company Signify is once again struggling, cutting 900 jobs worldwide, CEO As Tempelman said during an earnings report. The company, known for its Philips lamps, cites challenging market conditions. According to a spokesperson, 150 jobs will be cut in the Netherlands.
• Multiple sources have told us that since late last year, Neways has laid off a significant percentage of its workforce, specifically teams that worked on older ASML technology.
• TomTom, which has operations in Eindhoven, announced last year that it will cut 10 percent of its workforce.
So, are these cuts a harbinger of recession? Not at this point. But several companies are struggling.
Signify, headquartered on High Tech Campus, has real problems. It’s top-line revenue for 2025 was 5.8 billion, 30 percent below its 7.5 revenue its first year after spinning out of Philips. NOT the way to keep your job as CEO. Signify has had three CEOs in 12 months, according to Inside Lighting. As Tempelman — formerly CEO of Dutch utility Eneco — became CEO this past September. This is not an insignificant company and is publicly traded, so an acquisition by an American competitor might be in the offing.
By contrast, ASML executives are forecasting record sales for 2026 as AI adoption increases along with demand for chips from ASML customers NVIDIA and AMG. ASML is projecting sales between 34 billion euros and 39 billion euros, up as much as 17 percent from 32.67 billion euros in 2025, according to recent filings.
As so many media outlets have noted, ASML doesn’t make the parts that go into its room-size tools … it dreams them up, hands them to 5000 third party suppliers such as Neways to make, then assembles them into a machine no one else can make. Is there a Chinese company out there striving to do that? No doubt. But by the time they replicate ASML, ASML and the semiconductor industry will have moved on.
Bloomberg has a recent post proving our point, analyzing how the Eindhoven-based photolithography tool maker plans to keep up with chipmakers such as NVIDIA, rewriting the book on physics and lasers. “All of this has to be orchestrated so precisely that ASML can commit to delivering machines five years in the future that will be able to produce semiconductors to meet the needs of NVIDIA and Apple Inc.
“As people in the industry like to say, it’s not rocket science, it’s harder.”
Neways acquires Philips Micro Devices
Speaking of ASML, we knew late last year that critical supplier Neways was restructuring, laying off teams who had been making modules for ASML’s pre-ultra UV photolithography equipment, moving production to a new plant in Malaysia. What we didn’t know was Neways was playing the long game. Neways acquired Phillips Micro Devices, which makes microsystems for defense, semiconductor and medical sectors, picking up 70 employees in the process.
Last year, we posted that defense promises to rival AI and semicon on the Eindhoven ecosystem. It’s all making sense now. The deal is projected to close this year.
New companies on High Tech Campus
Last year, High Tech Campus Eindhoven topped 300 resident companies for the first time in its history. That number is still growing, with nine more companies.
• ABB E-mobility provides DC chargers for retail destinations, public charging stations and fleet depots.
• RIFT is developing Iron Fuel Technology turning iron into clean, circular energy.
• Design Academy Eindhoven, one of the world’s leading design schools, will have a presence on campus in the 3EALITY innovation hub.
• BarionX provides intelligent material detection systems.
ª EPAM Systems provides digital engineering, cloud and AI-enabled transformation services.
• Novenda Technologies is developing a 3D-printing platform based on multi-material jetting.
• Subduxion is joining the AI Innovation Center, helping organizations become smarter with applied artificial intelligence.
LUMO Labs in Barcelona for Norrsken AI pitch event
As we’ve reported last year, LUMO Lab’s co-founder Andy Lürling is spending a lot of time in Barcelona because he says that’s where the most promising startups are. As the most active VC in AI tech transfer in the Benelux, the High Tech Campus-based Lürling is headed to the Norrsken AI Pitch in Barcelona.
LUMO Labs is taking part in the first-ever Norrsken AI Pitch on 26 March at Norrsken House Barcelona, co-organized with Norrsken Evolve, Seaya and Masia. LUMO Labs Venture Partner Jorge Blasco will be joining a panel at the event as well.
Applications are open, and the deadline to apply is 9 February. You can apply here.
LUMO Labs is searching for five pre-seed impact-driven AI startups focused on tackling real-world challenges, including climate, healthcare, infrastructure and food systems.
What’s in it for startups:
→ Pitch live to 100-plus top-tier investors
→ Two weeks of dedicated mentoring to refine your pitch
→ Face-to-face with an investor jury
Norrsken AI Pitch:
✓ AI-powered solutions with impact at the core
✓ Early traction and a roadmap to scale
✓ Exceptional teams ready to execute
If you’re building AI that improves lives and protects the planet, they want to see you on stage. Based on High Tech Campus Eindhoven, LUMO Labs is a venture-builder/VC that invests tech promoting positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes.
Brief briefs
• Eindhoven’s province of North Brabant is investing 4 million euros in the AI Supercomputing Initiative. This program, a partnership between the province, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Tilburg University, and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), aims to support organizations in transitioning to AI supercomputers.
• Eindhoven-based ShanX Medtech has raised 24 million euros to accelerate its one-hour antibiotic diagnostic system. The startup aims to replace multi-day lab cultures with rapid, point-of-care precision. The investment consortium is led by Borski Fund, with NextGen Ventures, CbusineZ – an independent investment fund closely associated with healthcare insurer CZ – Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Invest-NL, and a prominent strategic angel fund all chipping in. Medtech is rapidly catching up with semiconductor in Eindhoven in terms of investment. We’ll have more on that later this year.
• We see a huge boom coming in miltech as Touchwaves just raised 1.5 million euros. The TNO spinout has developed non‑invasive, haptic wearables that compliment human-machine interactions and “elevate performance and situational awareness in high‑stress environments for NATO air forces,” according to the Touchwaves website.
The investment was led by led by SecFund, a fund supporting startups, scale-ups, and innovative SMEs that address the innovation needs of the Dutch Ministry of Defence and an interesting collection of investors that include TNO Ventures, Brabant Startup Fonds, imec.istart and Joanna Invests, a community of women investing in women who are building companies with global impact.
• Remember the days when Europe-based companies such as Nokia, Ericsson and Skype were tech leaders? Those days are long gone. A managing partner at one of Europe’s most active VCs, London-based Balderton Capital, says imagine Europe without American tech. This Wall Street Journal post finds that Europe’s dependence on U.S. tech has never been greater. Can Europe escape the U.S. tech stranglehold? Read the WSJ post here.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
