ASML Holding vs Broadcom: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: ASML Holding and Broadcom side by side

1. 1984ASML Holding

   Founded as ASM Lithography in Eindhoven

   ASM Lithography starts operations on April 1, 1984 as a joint venture between Philips and ASM International, with the mandate to commercialize the PAS 2000 wafer stepper developed inside Philips.

2. 1986ASML Holding

   PAS 2500 stepper and the Carl Zeiss partnership

   ASML brings the PAS 2500 stepper to market with a new wafer alignment system developed by first chief scientist Steef Wittekoek, and establishes the optics partnership with Carl Zeiss that still supplies every ASML lithography system.

3. 1988ASML Holding

   ASM International withdraws and Philips funds a rescue

   With few customers and heavy cash consumption, ASM International decides to stop funding the joint venture while Philips launches a company-wide cost-cutting program.

4. 1991ASML Holding

   PAS 5500 platform turns the company around

   ASML launches the PAS 5500 platform, whose productivity and resolution win the first large orders from Intel and IBM under chief executive Willem Maris and take the company to profitability. PAS 5500 systems are still running in customer fabs decades later.

5. 1991Broadcom

   Broadcom Corporation founded

   UCLA professor Henry Samueli and his former doctoral student Henry Nicholas III found Broadcom Corporation in Los Angeles to build broadband communications chips in CMOS, starting with chips for cable modems and digital set-top boxes.

6. 1995ASML Holding

   IPO in Amsterdam and on Nasdaq

   ASML becomes a fully independent public company with a dual listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Philips sells half of its shares at the IPO and divests the remainder over the following years.

7. 1998Broadcom

   Broadcom Corporation IPO

   Broadcom Corporation lists on Nasdaq in April 1998 at $24 a share, as cable operators roll out DOCSIS cable modems built on its chips.

8. 2001ASML Holding

   TWINSCAN platform launched and Silicon Valley Group acquired

   ASML introduces the TWINSCAN dual-stage architecture, which exposes one wafer while the next is measured and aligned, lifting throughput and overlay accuracy above competing systems.

9. 2003ASML Holding

   First immersion lithography system

   The TWINSCAN AT:1150i debuts as ASML's first immersion machine, projecting 193 nanometer light through a layer of ultrapure water between the lens and the wafer to raise resolution.

10. 2005Broadcom

    Avago Technologies formed

    KKR and Silver Lake buy Agilent Technologies' semiconductor products group, whose roots go back to Hewlett-Packard's chip operations, for about $2.66 billion and name it Avago Technologies.

11. 2006Broadcom

    Hock Tan becomes CEO of Avago

    Hock Tan becomes president and CEO of Avago in March 2006 and begins pruning its portfolio to the businesses with defensible technology.

12. 2009Broadcom

    Avago lists on Nasdaq

    Avago Technologies goes public on Nasdaq in August 2009 at $15 a share, giving it stock to use in later acquisitions.

13. 2010ASML Holding

    First EUV prototype shipped

    ASML ships the TWINSCAN NXE:3100, its first extreme ultraviolet lithography tool, to the research facility of an Asian chipmaker.

14. 2012ASML Holding

    Customer Co-Investment Program with Intel, TSMC and Samsung

    Intel, TSMC and Samsung acquire newly issued ASML shares equal to an aggregate 23 percent minority stake for ~$4.35 billion (3.85 billion euros) in cash, and separately commit ~$1.56 billion (1.38 billion euros) of R&D funding over five years dedicated to EUV…

15. 2013ASML Holding

    Cymer acquisition completed and second-generation EUV shipped

    ASML completes the acquisition of Cymer, the San Diego supplier of the light sources used in its lithography systems, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at ~$2.2 billion (1.95 billion euros) when it was agreed in October 2012.

16. 2014Broadcom

    LSI Corporation acquired

    Avago completes its $6.6 billion purchase of LSI in May 2014, adding storage controllers and custom ASIC design teams.

17. 2016Broadcom

    Avago buys Broadcom Corporation

    Avago completes its $37 billion acquisition of Broadcom Corporation in February 2016, takes the Broadcom name and trades as AVGO.

18. 2017ASML Holding

    EUV enters high-volume manufacturing

    ASML begins shipping the production-ready TWINSCAN NXE:3400B after customers started ordering the NXE:3400 generation in batches in 2016, roughly two decades after EUV research began.

19. 2017Broadcom

    Brocade acquired

    Broadcom completes its $5.9 billion purchase of Brocade Communications in November 2017, adding Fibre Channel storage networking switches.

20. 2018Broadcom

    Qualcomm bid blocked and move to the U.S.

    President Trump blocks Broadcom's unsolicited bid for Qualcomm on national security grounds in March 2018. Broadcom completes its redomicile from Singapore to the United States that April.

21. 2018Broadcom

    CA Technologies acquired

    Broadcom completes its $18.9 billion purchase of CA Technologies in November 2018, its first large software deal, creating the infrastructure software segment.

22. 2019ASML Holding

    Dutch government stops EUV exports to China

    The Netherlands does not renew ASML's export licence for EUV systems to China, the start of a widening export control regime.

23. 2019Broadcom

    Symantec enterprise security acquired

    Broadcom buys Symantec's enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in November 2019, adding endpoint, web and data loss prevention software.

24. 2022Broadcom

    VMware deal announced

    Broadcom agrees in May 2022 to buy VMware in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $61 billion at announcement.

25. 2023ASML Holding

    First High-NA EUV system shipped

    ASML ships the first of its next-generation EUV systems with a numerical aperture of 0.55, the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, to Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon.

26. 2023Broadcom

    VMware acquisition closes

    Broadcom completes the VMware acquisition on 22 November 2023 after clearances in the U.S., EU, UK and China, a deal valued at about $69 billion including assumed debt.

27. 2024ASML Holding

    Christophe Fouquet becomes chief executive

    Peter Wennink and Martin van den Brink step down as presidents of ASML on April 24, 2024 and Christophe Fouquet becomes president, chief executive officer and chair of the Board of Management.

28. 2024Broadcom

    Stock split and $1 trillion market value

    Broadcom splits its stock 10-for-1 in July 2024, sells VMware's end-user computing unit to KKR for about $4 billion, reports fiscal 2024 revenue of $51.6 billion and passes $1 trillion in market value in December 2024.

29. 2025ASML Holding

    Record year, first EXE:5200B and Mistral AI investment

    ASML reports total net sales of ~$37 billion (32.7 billion euros), up 15.6 percent, net income of ~$10.8 billion (9.6 billion euros), a gross margin of 52.8 percent and 535 systems sold, and closes the year with a backlog of ~$43.8 billion (38.8 billion euros)…

30. 2025Broadcom

    OpenAI partnership and record fiscal 2025

    OpenAI and Broadcom agree in October 2025 to deploy 10 gigawatts of OpenAI-designed accelerators. Fiscal 2025 revenue rises 24% to $63.9 billion, with about $20 billion from AI chips.

31. 2026Broadcom

    AI chips pass half of revenue

    Amie Thuener becomes CFO in June 2026. Third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue rises 86% to $29.6 billion, and AI semiconductor revenue of $16.7 billion is 56% of the total.

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