ASML to Cut 1,700 Jobs Amid Restructuring

ASML has announced a major restructuring plan cutting up to 1,700 management and leadership positions as part of an effort to improve engineering efficiency and flatten organizational layers. The roles targeted include department managers, project leads, scrum masters, product owners, and program managers — management overhead rather than engineers — in a deliberate shift from a matrix organization to a structure focused on specific products and modules.

The layoffs represent approximately 4% of ASML's 44,000-person global workforce and are concentrated primarily in the Netherlands, with some US cuts, announced in January 2026. The restructuring comes paradoxically as ASML's business has never been stronger: AI chip demand is driving a semiconductor upcycle, and the company reported a record 2025 fiscal year. Unions have rejected the company's original April 1 completion deadline as unrealistic, with negotiations ongoing.

Despite the headcount reduction, ASML is simultaneously planning major capacity expansion: Eindhoven's city council approved zoning changes in March 2026 allowing construction of a second campus capable of accommodating 20,000 new employees, nearly doubling its Dutch workforce. The dual move — shedding bureaucratic overhead while building infrastructure for the next AI-driven demand wave — signals a management team recalibrating for disciplined, long-cycle growth rather than the sprawling headcount expansion seen across tech in 2021-2023.