ASML CEO on AI chip demand, data centers in space and Musk's Terafab plant

ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet gave an interview to Bloomberg Television in which he assessed the state of the AI chip market, outlined promising directions for data centers and commented on working with new megaprojects, including Elon Musk's Terafab plant.

Demand is not falling

Despite concerns from some analysts that the AI investment bubble may burst, Fouquet is optimistic. According to him, the need for equipment to build AI data centers remains "huge," and he does not expect the market to saturate any time soon.

ASML makes EUV lithography machines, the only equipment in the world capable of creating structures of 5 nanometers and smaller. Without it, modern AI accelerators cannot be produced: NVIDIA cannot build its next Blackwell, and TSMC cannot open new capacity. That makes ASML a unique indicator of real demand: EUV machine contracts reflect what tech companies plan to build in 2–3 years. In Fouquet's view, this investment cycle is still far from over.

Musk's Terafab: a new class of load

One of the high-profile new customers is Terafab, Elon Musk's manufacturing megaproject. Earlier ASML customers are established semiconductor giants with well-tuned processes. Terafab represents a different category: fast-growing, ambitious and hard to predict in the volume of its requests. Fouquet acknowledged that when projects like this scale up, ASML must be confident there are no bottlenecks in the supply chain.

• Terafab is Musk's megaproject for producing next-generation AI chips
• ASML supplies EUV equipment, without which advanced chips cannot be made
• The company is working to prevent disruptions during a sharp rise in orders
• The load from megaprojects strains ASML's own production capacity
• The question of "who makes the machines for chipmakers" is becoming strategic

Data centers in space

Fouquet also touched on an unexpected topic: placing computing capacity beyond Earth. The CEO of a company of ASML's stature spoke about it not as science fiction but as a realistic long-term scenario.

"Demand for AI infrastructure remains huge,"

Fouquet said on Bloomberg Television.

The topic of space data centers is gaining momentum as the power consumption of AI clusters grows. Modern neural-network training centers consume hundreds of megawatts, which brings competition with residential areas for grid access and a shortage of cooling water. In theory, orbital facilities could receive solar energy around the clock and shed heat into a vacuum. The main obstacles for now are communication latency and the cost of launching equipment into orbit.

What this means

ASML is a key supplier in the global semiconductor chain, and its CEO's words are a signal to the market: the AI boom continues. Megaprojects like Terafab put a new kind of pressure on equipment makers, and ASML's ability to handle it without disruption will largely determine how fast next-generation AI infrastructure gets built.