We are a leading manufacturer of chip-making machines. From an early stage, we contributed to realizing Moore’s Law. Named after the co-founder of Intel, Moore’s Law describes a trend where the number of transistors per chip doubles roughly every two years as features on the chips become smaller. Since its discovery in the 1960s, Moore’s Law – which is more an empirical assessment than a genuine scientific law - has held true.

ASML has played a pivotal role in this trend towards more energy-efficient and more powerful electronics. We invent techniques to design machines that can produce smaller and smaller electronic circuits that use ever less energy and require a relatively lower amount of natural resources. We sometimes describe this quest to do more with less with the saying ‘less is Moore’.

Investing heavily in research and development, we are now one of very few companies in the world capable of developing the next generation of chip-making machines that will allow Moore’s Law to continue. We strongly believe that our unique and leading position in the market carries with it responsibilities.

Ultimately our contribution to the world, for both economic and social development, is creating and sharing knowledge in the fundamental scientific domains as well as in various technological areas. Our activities related to social responsibilities and community involvement are to be seen in this light. Also see the section 'The ASML Foundation' in the chapter 'Sustainable culture'.