ASM International (ASMI), a Dutch chip manufacturing equipment supplier, has announced on Wednesday that it has started production of some equipment locally in the United States in response to U.S. tariff policies.
The CEO of ASMI, Hichem M’Saad, revealed the company’s move to begin manufacturing equipment for customers in the U.S. during the announcement of the quarterly financial report. M’Saad stated, “We have already started manufacturing some equipment for customers in the U.S., and this is just the beginning.”
“Our global infrastructure and equipment base allow us to establish facilities in multiple locations, with Phoenix, Arizona being one of them,” M’Saad added.
Among European competitors such as ASML and BESI, ASMI has the highest reliance on the U.S. market, with U.S. sales accounting for 21% of its total revenue last year.
The company is also in competition with major U.S. rivals such as Applied Materials and Lam Research for market share. Analysts believe that if ASMI fails to swiftly adapt to tariff changes, it may face the risk of losing customers as local competitors have complete supply chains and customer bases.
As the second-largest semiconductor equipment supplier in Europe, ASMI has been operating in Arizona for over half a century, serving clients like Intel and TSMC who use its equipment to develop next-generation AI technology, producing advanced chips for Nvidia and AMD.
The demand for AI chips remains strong. The quarterly financial report released on Tuesday by ASMI showed that the company’s first-quarter orders exceeded the same period last year. Sales for the full year of 2025 are forecasted to increase by 10% to 20%. First-quarter orders amounted to 834.2 million euros (approximately $951 million), up from 697.9 million euros in the same period last year, mainly driven by demand in the Chinese market.
M’Saad emphasized that being close to chip manufacturers helps drive the development and adoption of ASMI’s most advanced technologies, such as Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), which currently has few competitors in the field.
ALD technology involves depositing atomic thin-layer materials on silicon wafers to create smaller chip circuits, contributing to the advancement of chip manufacturing processes.