Machinepower Index / Dossiers / Netherlands
Rank 12–22 across the scoring rules tested. How this is tested
Netherlands
Chokepoint Leverage — For nations holding a step in the chain nobody can route around, which their government could switch off: trade access for compute, investment and protection, and stay irreplaceable.
How the Score, Potential and bottleneck cost are worked out: methodology.
The three layers
Energy, grids, data centres and silicon — the physical capacity to run models at scale.
Compute tracked by Epoch AI: the Netherlands controls 124,000 H100-equivalents, wherever the sites are; hosts 400 for foreign firms. Hosted compute is shown, not scored.
Models, alignment capability, standards influence and the talent that produces them.
The capacity to wire AI into the state and the economy while holding public consent.
Where the score comes from
| Layer | Sub-dimension | Basis | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watts | Planning & Permitting | Assessed | 5.2 |
| Firm Power Capacity | Dataset | 4.3 | |
| Sovereign Compute | Dataset | 6.2 | |
| Hardware & Silicon Access | Dataset | 7.5 | |
| Weights | Frontier Model Output | Dataset | 3.0 |
| Alignment Capability | Assessed | 7.8 | |
| Regulatory Standing | Dataset | 9.4 | |
| Talent Density | Dataset | 6.1 | |
| Will | Policy Capacity | Dataset | 9.2 |
| Public Sector Adoption | Dataset | 9.4 | |
| Workforce Transition | Dataset | 8.4 | |
| Public Trust | Dataset | 5.1 |
Assessed marks a measurement we judged rather than took from a dataset: 2 of the 12 here.
Sources
Share of adults agreeing that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks; the Index scores public trust as 1 + share ÷ 10. Survey of 23,532 adults across 32 countries, March to April 2026.
View source →ASML is the only company in the world producing EUV lithography machines, with High-NA systems now shipping — Dutch export policy is therefore a lever over every leading-edge fab on Earth.
View source →The Netherlands ranks fourth globally in the 2025 index, reflecting strong digital government capability and data infrastructure.
View source →Structural congestion on the Dutch electricity grid delays new data-centre connections for years in many regions — the primary physical ceiling on domestic compute growth.
View source →Used for the workforce measurement. The IMF combines schooling, pay, labour mobility and active labour-market policies; the Index rescales it so the weakest of 173 economies scores 0 and the strongest 10.
View source →Fossil, nuclear, hydro and other dispatchable plant; averaged with generation for firm power.
View source →Second source for talent, averaged with Stanford's count.
View source →Second source for public trust, averaged with Ipsos.
View source →On the register — what the world cannot get anywhere else
The Netherlands holds one of the register's chokepoints: a position nobody else can route around, which its government could actually shut off. See the whole chain.
ASML is the only company that makes extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. No leading-edge chip can be made anywhere without them, so Dutch export licensing decides who is allowed to build advanced silicon at all. The Netherlands introduced its own controls in September 2023 and has withheld licences since.
ASML →Bottlenecks
These hold the Netherlands below its Potential. Its two lowest scores cost it the most: frontier model output at 3.0 (part of Weights) and firm power capacity at 4.3 (part of Watts).
Assessment
The Netherlands controls the other chokepoint of the hardware stack: ASML is the only supplier of EUV lithography in the world, making Dutch export policy a lever of world consequence. Strong governance and the Amsterdam data-centre hub are offset by severe domestic grid congestion and modest sovereign compute scale.
The art of the possible
The Netherlands holds a monopoly the superpowers cannot replicate: every leading-edge fab on Earth needs ASML. Solving grid congestion and pairing lithography with EU gigafactory capacity is worth doing because it makes the lithography position harder to bypass — not because the Netherlands needs a balanced profile it will never have. The trade is explicit: lithography access exchanged for compute guarantees and grid investment — priced early, while the leverage is at its peak.
Strategic play — Chokepoint Leverage
Keep ASML Dutch while both machinepowers lean on The Hague, and price lithography access early, for compute guarantees and grid investment, while the leverage is at its peak. Fixing grid congestion matters because it makes the position harder to bypass, not because the Netherlands needs a balanced profile.
Leverage — the nearest position. Holds the single most decisive chokepoint in the chain and has turned it.
Open Netherlands in the live Index → — every source behind every number, and the comparison tool.