AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest technology firm, said on Monday it will build a new research centre including a clean room together with Eindhoven’s Technical University, a project expected to cost several hundred million euros.
TU Eindhoven said in a statement it expects the project will lead to 40 new PhD positions at the university in fields related to semiconductor manufacturing including nano materials, photonics and quantum computing.
Like many technology firms, ASML has struggled to find engineering talent against a tight labour market. Despite Europe’s current economic slowdown, the company expects to hire thousands more employees globally in the coming years.
ASML dominates the global market for lithography equipment, machines that use highly focused beams of light to help create the circuitry of computer chips.
Spokeswoman Kelsey Zeegers said the company, which has been on a hiring spree as computer chip makers invest in new capacity, had one eye on the tight market for engineers and mechanics.
“We asked TU Eindhoven a year ago — we need more tech students and talents — are you also able to grow? And this is part of the answer,” she said.
Economic growth in the Dutch province that includes Eindhoven and nearby Veldhoven, where ASML is headquartered, has been stronger than in the rest of the Netherlands over the past decade as the region is becoming a tech hub.
“What’s happening in Brainport (the Eindhoven region) is quite amazing,” Zeegers said.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Christina Fincher)
