ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet Talks AI Demand, Future of Chips

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bloomberg Talks – ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet Talks AI Demand, Future of Chips
Date: June 17, 2026
Host: Tom MacKenzie (Bloomberg)
Guest: Christophe Fouquet, CEO of ASML
Location: Viva Tech Conference, Paris

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Episode Overview

This episode features a high-stakes conversation between Tom MacKenzie and Christophe Fouquet, CEO of ASML, Europe's most valuable technology company, at the Viva Tech Conference in Paris. The discussion centers on Europe's position in the global AI and semiconductor race, the growing demand for chips, geopolitical tensions affecting supply chains, and ASML's strategic moves in India and beyond.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. European AI and Semiconductor Sovereignty

• Context: US export controls on AI models highlight European vulnerabilities.
• Fouquet’s Message to Brussels (01:09):
  • Europe can’t attain technological sovereignty by decree alone; innovation must be prioritized first.
  • Sovereignty requires having “skin in the game,” i.e., significant value in the ecosystem, to have influence in global decision making.
  • Fouquet spearheads a Tech Creators group aiming to foster dialogue between industry and European/national governments.

“To get sovereignty you need innovation first. You have to do things in the right order. It’s not enough to say I want sovereignty.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 01:16

• Europe's Position in the AI/Chip Value Chain (02:31):
  • Europe’s main strength: its mature and attractive market (22% of global GDP).
  • There are critical gaps in manufacturing and the ecosystem.
  • Europe should build stepwise: industrial AI applications, product development, chip design, then manufacturing—rather than leap directly into fabs.

“You need at least to have enough... value in the ecosystem so that when those discussions happen, you have a voice.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 01:59

2. Global Comparison: Europe vs. US & China

• Scorecard (03:52):
  • US: “Clear winners.” Full-stack champions except for prior manufacturing gaps, now aggressively closing those.
  • China: Strong on applications, driving AI use more aggressively, but weaker upstream.
  • Europe: “Quite behind.” Notable holes throughout the ecosystem.

“The US is doing very, very well... China has been investing also across the entire ecosystem... and again when you look at Europe, a lot of holes.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 03:58

• Role of Government Intervention (05:14):
  • Europe lacks the tight industry-government collaboration seen in the US and China.
  • Need for more dialogue to ensure sensible regulation, or de-regulation, that enables industrial champions.

3. Demand Drivers for Advanced Chips and ASML Technology

• Ongoing AI Infrastructure Boom (06:27):
  • AI and compute demand is “enormous.” The market for chips will be supply-constrained for several years.
  • IPOs (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic) could trigger significant capex and additional demand for ASML machinery.

“I think a lot of us are convinced that we're going to be looking at a supply limited market for AI... for quite a few years.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 06:32

• Early Stages of AI Buildout (07:07):
  • Major industry investment only started in late 2025. Chipmakers are now rushing to add capacity.
  • Orders for ASML’s Deep UV (DUV) and Extreme UV (EUV) lithography tools are being pulled forward with longer-term visibility from customers.

“The move really happened basically at the end of last year... we all need to build capacity.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 07:09

4. Frontier Concepts: Data Centers in Space and Energy Bottlenecks

• Revenue Potential and Industry Impact (08:07):
  • Futuristic ideas like Elon Musk putting data centers in space aim to solve the industry’s energy bottleneck, not just add capacity.
  • Projects like “terrafab” or large-scale fabs in Korea could drive huge demand for ASML’s machines.

"The discussion about data center in space ... is there because there is an idea that if you do that the energy consumption or the energy availability will be there."
— Christophe Fouquet, 08:21

5. Geopolitical Tensions: China, US, and Compliance

• Shipping to China and Regulatory Risk (09:49 - 11:09):
  • ASML is often the target of rumors regarding exports to China.
  • Fouquet strongly asserts ASML’s rigorous global compliance; the company constantly adjusts to rapidly evolving export rules.

“We have been following every single rule... The rules are changing... but when this happens, you know, we change our behavior accordingly.”
— Christophe Fouquet, 10:25

• Importance of Compliance:
  • “Compliance is a very important... element in a very difficult geopolitical environment.” (11:14)

6. India: An Emerging Semiconductor Giant

• Partnership with Tata (11:24):
  • ASML is helping Tata launch India’s first semiconductor fab in 2027.
  • India consumes 10% of all chips globally; the local buildout is a “strategic question of supply.”
  • Fouquet sees the India partnership as a long-term growth opportunity—“for the next five and ten years.”

“We are very happy with this partnership because we are partnering at the very start, at the very beginning...”
— Christophe Fouquet, 11:35

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “To get sovereignty you need innovation first. You have to do things in the right order. It’s not enough to say I want sovereignty.” (01:16)
• “The US is doing very, very well... China has been investing also across the entire ecosystem... and again when you look at Europe, a lot of holes.” (03:58)
• “I think a lot of us are convinced that we're going to be looking at a supply limited market for AI... for quite a few years.” (06:32)
• “Compliance is a very important... element in a very difficult geopolitical environment.” (11:14)
• “We are very happy to start now because we look at that as a growing opportunity... for the next five and ten years in India.” (12:10)

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Timeline of Important Segments

• 01:09 – Christophe Fouquet on European sovereignty and innovation.
• 03:52 – Scorecard: Europe vs. US and China in the chips race.
• 06:27 – Demand for AI infrastructure and chipmaking equipment.
• 07:44 – Pull-forward of orders for ASML lithography machines.
• 08:07 – On data centers in space and addressing energy bottlenecks.
• 09:49 – Navigating US-China tensions and export compliance.
• 11:24 – India partnership and the country's semiconductor ambitions.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode offers a frank, insightful look at the global semiconductor battle. Christophe Fouquet highlights the slow progress of Europe compared to the US and China, underscores the vital need for innovation and strategic investment, and outlines looming chip demand and supply constraints. He cautions on regulatory compliance amid geopolitical wrangling and expresses optimism for ASML’s long-term opportunities in emerging markets like India.

Fouquet’s tone is pragmatic yet optimistic, balancing realism about the challenges ahead with enthusiasm for future growth and technology’s pivotal role in global industry and geopolitics.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Bloomberg Host]

Paris, back to France where Opening Trade co host Tom Mackenzie is standing by with the CEO of ASM at the Viva Tech conference. Tom, Take it away,

[Tom MacKenzie]

Matt. Yes, the CEO of Europe's most valuable company asml, that plays that central role of course, in the semiconductor space. Christoph Fouquet Christophe we are meeting and talking at a moment where there is a lot of focus here in Europe on the decision by the US to impose export controls on anthropic models. And Europe is feeling the impact of that. And it's a reminder of the questions around sovereignty, particularly around AI. And you are pushing hard on this. What is your message to Brussels? What is it that Europe to do to ensure that it is not vulnerable to those kind of supply chain risks?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, I think indeed there's a lot of discussion around that and sovereignty has become a key word because people realize that strategically, if you don't have a big enough part of a certain ecosystem, in this case AI, you're going to be exposed to the goodwill of other parties. But I think what's very important to understand when it comes to sovereignty is to get sovereignty you need innovation first. You have to do things in the right order. It's not enough to say I want sovereignty. What's very important is make sure that innovation can happen in Europe. And I think that's a bit the idea of the Tech Creators group we have created where we believe that it is very, very important to have a dialogue with the different government commission, but also national government to help them to understand how to create the conditions such that the AI ecosystem can. In Europe you will never have the entire ecosystem. Yeah, right. You cannot do it whole, it's too much or you cannot do it all at the same time. But you need at least to have enough, I would say skin in a game, enough value in the ecosystem so that when those discussion of those decisions happen, you have a voice.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Where can Europe have skin in the game? They got skin in the game with ASML and the role that you play.

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Yeah.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Where else can Europe have skin in the game when it comes to AI?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, I think a very important place is the market itself. The European market is pretty attractive, right? You look at 22% of GDP, it's a very, I would Say mature market, very good market. So this means we are user, we are buying a lot of stuff and that's to start with a strength for Europe. And I think that's the reason why Europe was created. Now if you look at the other part between maybe ASML and that, we have a lot of holes and sometime we discuss a lot semiconductor manufacturing. Yes, there is a gap there, but most probably not the right place to start because semiconductor manufacturing is only needed if you have people to buy a semiconductor. Today if we had a 2 nanometer fab in Europe, most probably most of the wafers will go to the US So since we have a strong market, we have to start by looking at that and focus on what we call the market demand product and have strong industrial projects around AI application, around made be a product, then maybe a chip design and then chip manufacturing. But you have to look at the entire sequence and look at it in the right order.

[Tom MacKenzie]

How would you, how would you score Europe right now on a score of 1 to 10 in this race?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, I think I've said that before. I think that you know, if we compare how we do on the entire ecosystem versus the US and China, I think today the US is a clear winners. I mean they are looking at champion across the entire semi ecosystem. I think the one place they were missing a bit out was manufacturing. And I think they have been extremely aggressive in bringing some key company to manufacture in the US they can do that because they buy chips. 80% of the advanced chips manufacturer worldwide is bought by the United States. So I think the US is doing very, very well. China has been investing also across the entire ecosystem. I think most solely they do very well on the application side, a bit less on what's before that. I think they are driving the use of AI most probably more aggressively than any other country. And again when you look at Europe, a lot of whores. So I would say, you know, quite behind what's happening elsewhere today.

[Tom MacKenzie]

So that gap is obviously there. How interventionist should European governments be? The US taking a 10% stake in Intel. Is that a, a playbook that we should copy?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, I think two things maybe. So the first thing we need have a dialogue between the industry and government, the commission. Years compared to what's happening in the US or in China. This has been missing and I think the responsibility.

[Bloomberg Host]

All right, it looks like we are losing the feed there, which is always how it goes at a tech conference.

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Right.

[Bloomberg Host]

The WI fi doesn't work in any case. We'll get back to Bloomberg's Tom MacKenzie and the CEO of ASML. Soon as we can recover that at, at the Viva Tech Paris conference. Okay. Apparently they're talking again so we'll see if the tech holds up.

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

The whole of government is to really develop instruments regulation or lack of regulation in some cases to make the industry champion life a lot easier.

[Tom MacKenzie]

I want to ask you about the IPOs that come through space X notably and possibly OpenAI anthropic coming up into the future. Are we underestimating the capex spending that could come about as a result of that capital raising and what it means for the demand for your lithography machines?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, if you look at, you know, worldwide, the demand for AI infrastructure is still enormous and the demand for ag compute start to come up. So the demand is continuing to go up. I think a lot of us are convinced that we're going to be looking at a supply limited market for AI for semiconductor for quite a few two years because the buildup of the infrastructure is, is huge. And I think some of the IPO you mentioned are just pointing to the opportunity that the ISE is representing.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Are we early in this still? Where are we in that? In that?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

I think we're early because you know, even a year ago the AI company were already very vocal about the need for this architecture, the need to build up capacity. My industry, the semi industry was still a bit hesitant to move and the move really happened basically at the end of last year and very quickly and now we all need to build capacity. So our customer have to build fab. We have to make sure we build enough equipment to fill those fab. Yeah and a catch up will take quite a bit and that's only for the infrastructure and then the application will come.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Are you seeing a pull forward of orders for your DV and EV machines from customers?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

We see a pool, we see customer continuing to create visibility, longer term visibility, telling us well this is a bit here to stay. So I would say that the trend we see is still very strong towards basically demand.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Run with me on this one. Data centers and space is that, is there a potential additional revenue stream for, for ASML if Musk pulls that one off?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, I think, you know, you need a certain amount of data center and they will be in space, they will be on hearse. Doesn't necessarily change a number. I think the discussion about data center in space is to maybe address another potential bottleneck in the ecosystem, which is energy. I think the discussion around putting data center in space is there because there is an idea that if you do that the energy consumption or the energy availability will be there. So maybe not too much to do with you know, the total data center capacity, but maybe more about trying to solve another potential big issue which is energy for data center.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Elon Musk is also looking at a terraform plan, potentially 1 terawatt of power. What's the potential upside for ASML on that? Have you talked to Musk about that project? Is that, is that, is that a potential uplift as well for the business going forward?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Well, you know, you know, any added capacity of of course a potential up side for, for us. I think we are looking very carefully on the development on when things will happen, at what speed. You know, new projects are opportunity as long as you're not supply limited. So that's, that's also important to say that. So we have to make sure that this is really being taken care. But I think the terrafab is, is an example of a major fab project. If you look at some of the DRAM project in Korea, you also look at million of wafer fab, so that' pretty big.

[Tom MacKenzie]

Okay, so Korea and the build out there is going to be a driver as well. Staying with the US though that one of the top House Republicans on the House China Committee sent a letter in April suggesting that ASML was going to start shipping duv lithography machines into China. There's some concern there. Do you have a response to, to that?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

No, it's not a response because you know we have a dialogue with every government. I think, you know that in the last few years we have been subject many, many times to those kind of negative rumors about what we do. I mean every time the rumors have been quite, I would say potentially hurtful even for asml. And I want to say it again. I mean we have been following every single rules and we continue to do that. The rules are changing by the way, quite often and sometimes something you could do, you cannot do anymore. But when this happens, you know, we change our behavior accordingly. So we are extremely cautious in trying to follow or follow basically the rule of laws. It's very important. And that's true for dpuv, that's true for euv, that's true for any activity we have in China or anywhere else in the world. And I can promise you there's a lot of people in SML making sure that we comply. Compliance is a very important, I would say element in, in a very difficult geopolitical environment.

[Tom MacKenzie]

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be here in Paris Tomorrow?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Yes.

[Tom MacKenzie]

You've partnered with Tata.

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Yes.

[Tom MacKenzie]

On their aspirations around boundaries and build out of semiconductor capacity. How much of a growth story potentially is India for asmr?

[Christoph Fouquet, CEO of ASML]

Yeah, so I think so first, we're very happy with this partnership because we are partnering at the very start, at the very beginning. So of course we all know that India today doesn't have manufacturing for semiconductor. But you know, by 2030 they believe that 10% of any chips will be used by India and like anyone else that become therefore a strategic question of supply and therefore they want to get their factory. So first FAB will come up next year. A lot of learning has to happen and we will help help India Tata for this partnership to accelerate the learning and you know, as learning gets successful, you grow the opportunity. So we are very happy to start now because we look at that as a growing opportunity for not the next two years, but for the next five and ten years in India. And we are very happy that we are there from the South.

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