ASML's former CEO believes that Donald Trump's re -election offers a gold chance for Europe.
Peter Wenink, the ASML became the most valuable technology company in the continent, sees an opportunity for other companies to thrive by changing cooperation towards isolationism.
“Mr. Trump could be the best thing that Europe ever happened. I think people have woken up,” said Wennink on Friday at the TNW conference.
He now wants the continent to capture the moment by repeating a pillar of the success of ASML: open ecosystems.
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While over a decade, Wenink, who was supervised as CEO, was increasing the company's increase to a market capitalization of € 250 billion after its stock rose by 1,000%. The company's dominance is based on its EUV lithographic machines, which are of crucial importance for the production of the most progressive chips in the world. No other business in the world offers them.
Wenink, however, emphasizes that the technology needs trustworthy partners to thrive. While the United States turns inwards, he wants the European governments and companies to double the cooperation. Mixed by Trump's trade wars and withdrawal from transatlantic bonds, many are already moving in this direction.
“[They] Certainly think about one -sided dependencies as unacceptable because of the unpredictability of Mr. T as unacceptable, ”said Wennink.
The change in the way of thinking, he adds, is overdue. Wenink recently described the Netherlands as “fat, stupid and happy”. But complacency now fades.
He refers to change strategies among local investors. In the midst of growing political concerns regarding the United States, many European funds repatriate their capital.
APG, which manages the largest pension system in the Netherlands, recently said that the majority of a forecast EUR 100 billion in New Capital would be spent in Europe. Only last month, the EUR 57 billion pension funds reported the political risks under Trump as the main reason for the reassessment of its US investments.
Wenink heard these concerns first -hand. “The big question you ask me now is how much money should come back?” he said.
“I've been in business for 50 years and have never heard pension funds – but also government officials – say that,” he added.
The challenge is now waiting to reorganize these investments – a process that will take years. In the meantime, USTech giants will continue to progress. Can Europe catch up?
The young son, a member of the board of arms and founding manager at Walden Catalyst Ventures, believes that this can. It refers to ASML and arm that appear from Europe to become two of the world's largest hardware companies.
How did you do that? “It was about ecosystems,” said son.
The arm based in Great Britain is a prime example. The company's chip designs now carry over 99% of the smartphones, billions of devices and countless AI applications.
However, when arm was a small attempt in a field in the early nineties, which was dominated by Intel, Motorola and Texas instruments. Son argued that the company was successful by concentrating on the cooperation.
“They decided to be a peace prisoner,” he said. “They decided to give their IP pretty much all all over the world so that everyone does not have to reproduce these processing architectures, which are required for lower power supply. This is a company that has built up an ecosystem from startup company.”
Wenink also leads the success of ASML to partnerships. The company's ecosystem of suppliers, universities, research institutes, innovation programs, technology companies and customers has shaped its direction from the start. ASML actively searched for contributions from all.
“If something very complex is, you don't know what you don't know – but someone else could,” he said.
This model, he argues, is ideal for Europe -especially when Trump redesigns the US Tech landscape.
“I am firmly convinced that there is a European mentality … that there is an intrinsic desire to work together,” said Wennink. “And the main condition for the collaboration is that you have a reasonable share of the risks and rewards you drive together. And that's a European feature.”
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