AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Semiconductor buyers, including Germany’s auto industry, need older generations of computer chips in which Chinese chipmakers are now investing, the chief executive of chip-making equipment maker ASML said in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday.
The comments by Christophe Fouquet, who became CEO of Europe’s largest tech company in April, came as the European Commission began investigating companies including ASML over their views on Chinese companies’ investments in so-called “legacy” chips, a key source of revenue for ASML.
“The automotive industry, especially in Germany, needs more chips that are made using simpler and older known technologies,” Fouquet told the paper.
Chinese companies are expanding production capacity for these older chips in the face of U.S.-led restrictions on advanced technology, raising concerns in the West about a potential long-term oversupply.
Fouquet said global demand for these chips has grown dramatically but making them is not very profitable and Western companies are not investing enough.
“Europe can’t even meet half of its own needs,” Fouquet said.
Industry group SEMI estimates that Chinese chipmakers are expected to grow their production capacity by 14% in 2025, more than double the pace of the rest of the world, reaching 10.1 million wafers per month in 2025, accounting for about a third of the world’s total.
“If someone wants to delay it for any reason, there needs to be an alternative. It doesn’t make sense to stop someone from producing something they need,” Fouquet said.
(Reporting by Toby Stirling and Louise Heavens Editing)
