North Brabant
North Brabant exhibits keystone species dynamics: Philips created Eindhoven, then ASML's EUV lithography monopoly made Brainport globally critical to semiconductor supply chains.
North Brabant demonstrates keystone species dynamics in economic development: one company transformed an agricultural backwater into Europe's most critical technology hub. When Gerard Philips founded his light bulb factory in Eindhoven in 1891, the town had 2,310 inhabitants. Philips built not just a factory but an ecosystem—housing, schools, sports facilities, a theater—because the Catholic municipality wouldn't help the Protestant industrialist. By 1935, Eindhoven had swelled to 103,000 people, and six villages merged into one company town.
The keystone species evolved. Philips spun off ASML in 1984, which now holds a global monopoly on extreme ultraviolet lithography—the only technology capable of manufacturing advanced semiconductors. With 90% market share and €275 billion market value, ASML's presence explains why the Dutch government invested €2.5 billion in 'Project Beethoven' to retain the company, and why ASML plans to create 20,000 jobs at the expanding Brainport Industries Campus.
Brainport Eindhoven—the regional innovation ecosystem—now ranks third globally in patents per capita and seventh in R&D intensity. The High Tech Campus, initiated by Philips in 1999, hosts 140 companies with 10,000 researchers filing an average of four patents daily. Yet this success creates metabolic stress: the region grows twice as fast as the Netherlands overall, requiring 100,000 additional houses over the next decade. The province confronts the paradox of being essential yet vulnerable—if ASML or its supply chain falters, the entire ecosystem faces collapse, just as Philips' 1970s decline once threatened the region before the 'Never Again' transformation strategy.