ASML CEO Fouquet: “The faster you grow, the less efficient you get”

It may not be ASML’s best string of years, but cost-cutting isn’t at the front of CEO Christophe Fouquet’s mind. At least, not in the traditional sense. His gaze remains firmly fixed on what he calls cost with a capital C, the Cost associated with chip manufacturing. Only as long as this Cost can be driven down, can the semiconductor game continue. To make that happen, innovation is key, especially at a company whose equipment accounts for the largest share of capital investment in a semiconductor fab.

To keep progress on track, Fouquet is looking inward, at ASML’s corporate culture. “Our engineers feel they spend far too much time on non-essential tasks: meetings, paperwork, processes.” His goal now is to reclaim that time and redirect it toward core engineering work. “We want to make sure that if someone spends an hour in the office, most of that hour is dedicated to innovation. We need people to be creative. The more ideas we get, the more we can turn into a product.”