Did you hear the one about the corporate giant bringing hundreds of jobs to North Scottsdale?
This isn’t about Axon – which is already in the 101/Hayden Road neighborhood. The Taser maker is fighting to move ahead with a controversial plan to build a new office building surrounded by upwards of 1,900 apartments.
While the police equipment juggernaut says it will quadruple its work force if allowed to move ahead with a scheme the city and others are challenging, another tech powerhouse has encountered no resistance as it quietly charges ahead on building a new corporate home.
No apartments here at ASM, less than a mile north of Axon.
And why would ASM’s 1,300 engineers and other workers want to live on the Dutch company’s new American headquarters and “campus?”
ASM’s next-door neighbor is Optima McDowell Mountain Village, where 1,300 apartments are being built.
Though impressive, the number of positions ASM is creating is just a cut of a massive job pie being baked here on “development row.”
On a sprawling lot south of ASM, the smaller Banner Health Center Plus that starts construction soon and a planned Banner Scottsdale Medical Center could employ upwards of 2,500. Across Hayden Road from Banner, Rick Smith promises to balloon his Axon staff of 850 to 5,500 if his live-work-play campus is not blocked.
As Optima and Axon both plan shops and restaurants, the number of new employees along development row could approach 10,000.
While a few of these big developments are pending, ASM is at full-speed-ahead.
The Netherlands company designs and manufactures “equipment and process solutions to produce semiconductor devices for wafer processing.” Wafers serve as bases for semiconductor chips.
On its 20 acres, ASM plans “a combination of capital expenditures related to infrastructure and lab equipment,” with research and engineering jobs coming – as hinted by plans for a five-story garage, in addition to two offices and labs.
According to a news release, “ASM, a semiconductor supplier with local customers like Intel and TSMC, is investing $300 million in its new Scottsdale facility and plans to add 500 new high-paying jobs as part of the expansion.”

A development agreement requires ASM to provide 600 acre feet of water – about as much as 2,000 homes would use in a year – to the city.
With 800 employees already at its current Phoenix headquarters, the additional staff would bump ASM’s Scottsdale payroll to 1,300. ASM showed it was serious by entering into a joint development agreement with the city.
A crucial difference between this and Axon’s plan: As ASM is not trying to put up living spaces, no rezoning was required for it to build.
The city issued building permits May 7. While writing a check for around $360,000 in permit fees, ASM told the city the value of its commercial shells for an office, lab and garage is $116 million.
Contractor Oakland Construction Company got right to it, starting foundational work the second week of May.
Compared to many developers who struggle for financing, this company can afford to pay its way. ASM’s revenue for 2024 was $3.2 billion, jumping 11.31% from 2023
‘Bring your water’
Across the 101 from Grayhawk and the booming Scottsdale One development, ASM’s new North American headquarters will cover 250,000 square feet – double the size of its Phoenix facility.
ASM has research and development centers in Arizona, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Japan, South Korea and Italy and manufacturing sites in Singapore, South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands.
On Sept. 10, Scottsdale City Council unanimously approved $7 million in water and sewer line reimbursements to a trio of developers in that “netherland” south of the Loop 101, between Scottsdale and Hayden roads: global corporation ASM, healthcare giant Banner Health and “retail development specialist” De Rito.
One week later, Council unanimously approved a separate development agreement with ASM.
The new ASM development deal calls for the city to reimburse the tech company for up to $6.3 million “for a portion of public infrastructure costs.”
Then-Councilman Tom Durham, before making the motion to approve the development deal, praised the Dutch-based company’s plan to bring the water it will use in Scottsdale. Former Scottsdale Water Executive Brian Biesemeyer explained it will be provided by SRP.
In early 2024, even as Durham and other city officials were rejoicing over ASM’s relocation, Biesemeyer expressed concerns over the Dutch company’s plans to recycle 80% of its wastewater.
In an internal email, Biesemeyer warned it was crucial for ASM to understand “they cannot dump to our sewer if their recycle plant is down.”
Near the beginning of 2024, Paul Crothers, ASM’s vice president of operations, projected the company’s North Scottsdale water use: Just under 90,000 gallons per day during Phase 1 of development, shooting up to about 234,000 gallons per day in Phase 2.
That would mean from 30 to 80 million gallons per year.
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