8 Dutch tech innovations: the future is this smart

From chip machines and quantum computers to AI for proteins, medical mini-organs and more liveable cities: these Dutch innovations show that technology becomes truly interesting when it changes larger systems.

Technology is never just technology. A chip machine is a prerequisite for almost everything digital. An AI model can bring a new medicine or new materials closer. A digital twin is a way to control cities, heat networks, and industry more intelligently.

That is what makes the Dutch tech landscape so interesting. Across the country, innovations are emerging that touch on the major questions of our time: how do we make AI more energy-efficient? How do we accelerate medical research and build tomorrow’s digital infrastructure? Can we ensure that technology becomes not only faster and more powerful, but also more human, cleaner and easier to apply?

These eight examples show how broad that movement is. From Veldhoven to Groningen, from Leiden to Enschede, from Nijmegen to Rotterdam: the Netherlands is helping to build the technology of the future and, very concretely, the machines, models and systems that make that future possible.

1. ASML: the machines behind the global chip revolution

Some innovations have become so big that you almost forget how exceptional they are. ASML in Veldhoven is the best Dutch example of this. It is a tech success we simply cannot ignore. Without ASML’s lithography machines, the world’s most advanced chips could not be made in their current form. And without those chips, there would be no modern AI, no powerful smartphones, no self-driving systems, no data centres, no high-tech medical equipment and no next generation of industrial automation.

ASML does not make a consumer product. There is no box on a store shelf, no app on your phone, no visible device in the living room. The company supplies the unique tools that allow others to build the digital world. That is precisely what makes ASML so fundamental: it sits far beneath the surface of almost every technological development.

The Brainport region, born from the cradle of Philips, has produced a company that is much larger than its own factory site. ASML is a systems player. It influences global supply chains, geopolitics, scientific progress and the competitiveness of continents. At a time when chips are more strategic than oil ever was, one of the most important gateways to the future stands in Veldhoven.

2. IMChip: making AI more efficient with brain-like chips

AI is growing explosively. Models are becoming larger, applications more numerous, and data centres fuller. But behind all that progress lies an uncomfortable question: how much energy should intelligence be allowed to consume? IMChip, which emerged from the research environment around Groningen University, is looking for the answer not only in more efficient software, but in fundamentally different hardware.

The promise of IMChip lies in neuromorphic and in-memory computing. Classical computers constantly move data between memory and processor. That costs time and energy. The human brain works differently: storage and processing are much closer together. Neuromorphic computing tries to mimic some of that efficiency in chips. Not by literally copying the brain, but by organising the architecture of computation more intelligently.

In doing so, IMChip touches on a crucial question for the future of AI. If artificial intelligence is to be embedded everywhere, from medical devices to industrial robots, from cars to sensors, then that intelligence cannot remain endlessly dependent on energy-hungry data centres. The next AI revolution will therefore be as much about larger models as about smaller, more efficient and smarter chips. Groningen shows that this revolution also begins in hardware.

3. Cradle: AI that learns to speak the language of proteins

Proteins are the workhorses of life. They direct cellular processes, enable reactions, form structures, and determine how organisms function. Anyone who can design proteins more effectively gains access to an enormous world of possible applications: new medicines, better enzymes, more sustainable chemistry, smarter materials and more efficient production processes.

Amsterdam-based Cradle uses generative AI to accelerate that design work. Where researchers traditionally have to create, test and improve many variants, Cradle helps them design new protein candidates in a more targeted way. The software learns from experimental data and makes suggestions that researchers can then test in the lab. AI thus becomes not a replacement for the scientist, but a co-pilot in a complex design process.

Cradle’s story is so powerful because it takes AI beyond the realm of text, images and chatbots. Here, artificial intelligence is being used at the molecular level. The goal is to better understand the language of biology. That places Cradle at an exciting intersection: medtech, biotech, deeptech, and AI converge on the question of how we can design life itself with greater precision.

4. MIMETAS: human mini-organs on a chip

Before a new medicine reaches a patient, it has often travelled a long, expensive and uncertain road. Many compounds that look promising in early tests later fail because they do not work well enough or have unexpected side effects. Leiden-based MIMETAS is trying to narrow that gap with organ-on-a-chip technology.

The company develops small, controlled models of human tissue. Instead of working only with flat cell cultures or animal models, researchers can use these systems to better mimic how human cells behave in a realistic environment. A miniature version of an organ-on-a-chip is, of course, not a complete body, but it can provide important signals about efficacy, toxicity, and disease processes.

For Leiden, with its strong Life Sciences & Health profile, MIMETAS is a logical flagship. The company shows how technology can change the way we develop medicines. The promise is not only faster research, but also better research: more human, more predictive and possibly less dependent on animal testing. In a world where healthcare must become increasingly personalised, innovation sometimes begins with a tiny piece of human tissue in a lab.

5. Thirona: AI that helps doctors see better

Medical images often contain more information than the human eye can quickly process. A lung scan, X-ray or retinal image becomes a dataset full of patterns. Nijmegen-based Thirona uses AI to make those patterns visible and useful for doctors and researchers.

The company develops software for analysing medical images, including applications in lung diseases, tuberculosis and ophthalmology. This makes Thirona a strong example of AI without hype. Not a generic system that promises everything, but specialised technology that helps doctors work more consistently, quickly and precisely. Its value lies in strengthening medical expertise.

Thirona shows that artificial intelligence in healthcare becomes especially valuable when it is deeply embedded in a specific medical practice. AI as a second pair of eyes. AI as a measuring instrument. AI as a way to translate large volumes of images into concrete information. In Nijmegen, the promise of medical AI becomes tangible: better diagnostics begins with better seeing.

6. HFML-FELIX / NIFTI: magnetic levitation for liveable cities

Not every technological breakthrough starts as a company. Some begin as research projects that challenge the assumptions of an entire system. NIFTI, developed in the HFML-FELIX environment at Radboud University in Nijmegen, asks a bold question: what if urban transport were no longer dependent on heavy vehicles with their own motors, batteries, and drive systems?

The National Individual Floating Transport Infrastructure is based on magnetic levitation. Instead of placing power and control in the vehicle, NIFTI moves them to the road. Electromagnetic coils beneath the road surface allow individual pods to float and move forward. As a result, the vehicle itself can become lighter, quieter and cleaner.

The possible consequences are significant. No friction means no tyre wear and no related particulate pollution. Magnetic propulsion means less noise. Lighter pods can reduce accident risks. Central control can help manage congestion. And because the infrastructure lies beneath the surface, it can be integrated into the urban environment with less visual impact.

NIFTI is not a product that will be on sale tomorrow. It is a research-driven vision of mobility. That is precisely why it belongs in this list: it shows Dutch technology at the level of systems imagination. Instead of electrifying the car as we know it, NIFTI asks whether urban transport itself can be redesigned.

7. QphoX: the modem for the quantum internet

Quantum computers are powerful in theory, but difficult to scale in practice. One of the major challenges is connection: how do you link quantum processors without destroying the fragile quantum information they carry?

Delft-based QphoX is working on that missing link. The company develops quantum transduction technology: hardware that can convert quantum information between microwave and optical domains. Put more simply: QphoX wants to enable quantum computers to communicate with each other via light.

That is why the technology is often described as a quantum modem. Just as classical modems connected computers to networks, quantum transducers could become essential for distributed quantum computing and the future quantum internet.

The strategic relevance is clear. If quantum processors can be connected optically via fibre, quantum computing does not have to revolve solely around building one enormous machine. It can develop as a modular system of linked processors. QphoX is therefore positioned at a crucial intersection of quantum hardware, photonics and secure digital infrastructure.

8. SenseGlove: being able to touch the virtual world

Virtual and augmented reality have promised immersive training for years, but one crucial element has often been missing: touch. SenseGlove, based in Rotterdam, develops haptic force-feedback gloves that allow users to feel virtual objects.

That changes what VR and AR can be used for. In industrial training, users can practise complex tasks without using expensive equipment. In aerospace or defence, risky procedures can be rehearsed safely. In robotics, haptic interaction can support teleoperation and imitation learning. In all these cases, the virtual world becomes more useful because it is sufficiently physical to train not only the eyes but also the body.

SenseGlove’s technology has been applied in contexts ranging from automotive assembly training to space-related simulations. The underlying idea is simple but powerful: if people can feel virtual objects, they can learn by doing without always needing the real environment.

That makes SenseGlove a different kind of Dutch tech story. It is not about smaller chips or larger models, but about the interface between human hands and digital systems. As work becomes more automated, more remote and more frequently simulated, the sense of touch may become one of the most important ways to keep humans in the loop.

Beyond ASML, Dutch tech becomes a systems story

ASML remains the unavoidable reference point for Dutch deeptech. But the broader picture is richer. IMChip focuses on the energy costs of AI. Cradle brings AI to biology. MIMETAS and Thirona improve how we develop therapies and interpret medical data. HFML-FELIX/NIFTI reimagines urban mobility. QphoX builds links for the quantum internet. SenseGlove gives the virtual world a sense of touch.

These are just a few examples from the extremely rich Dutch innovation ecosystem. Together, these examples show that Dutch technology is not a single industry or a single region. It is a collection of capabilities: precision technology, scientific depth, applied AI, human-centred design, photonics, quantum technology and systems thinking.

What these initiatives have in common is that they do not build isolated gadgets. They change underlying systems: how chips are made, how AI computes, how medicines are developed, how doctors see, how the virtual and physical worlds touch. That may well be the essence of NewDutch Tech: not technology for technology’s sake, but technology that opens new possibilities for health, sustainability, autonomy and knowledge. Because intelligence only becomes truly valuable when it also helps the world work better.