ASM International is one of the clearest reasons the Dutch semiconductor ecosystem should not be reduced to ASML. The company specialises in wafer-processing equipment, including deposition technologies used to build increasingly complex transistor and memory structures.
Its strategic position is particularly relevant as the industry moves toward gate-all-around architectures and more demanding memory designs. ASM's 2025 annual report explicitly frames those transitions as part of the opportunity created by accelerating AI demand.
Different equipment, same advanced-node cycle
Lithography defines patterns on the wafer; deposition adds precisely controlled material layers. At advanced nodes, the number and complexity of those layers can rise, which makes process control and atomic-scale deposition strategically important.
That means ASM can benefit from some of the same leading-edge investment cycle as ASML without competing in lithography.
Why the Netherlands has unusual equipment density
Having ASML, ASM International and BE Semiconductor Industries in the same national ecosystem gives the Netherlands exposure to multiple stages of semiconductor capital equipment: lithography, deposition and advanced packaging.
The companies are global, not merely Dutch suppliers serving local fabs. Their domestic significance comes from headquarters, R&D, engineering networks and the supplier ecosystem around them.