How a revolutionary company threatens to become a pawn between the US and China

It is considered the most valuable tech company in Europe: the ASML company from Veldhoven in the Netherlands. Their product is a true magic machine that is coveted by the major technology groups worldwide.

And precisely for this reason, the European company is increasingly caught up in the tension between the US and China, as the Austrian newspaper “Standard” shows with a current example.

The Magic Machine

Without ASML’s magic machine, we wouldn’t have consumer or household electronics, cars or wind turbines, AI or war machines, among other things. Or at least all those things would work differently and would probably be slower, bigger and heavier. Because ASML builds the machines that manufacturers of silicon-based chips use to make their products – and makes them smaller and more powerful.

ASML’s machines are anything but small: each machine is the size of a double-decker bus in London, weighs more than 200 tonnes and costs several hundred million euros.

What makes ASML’s machines so special is that they are world leaders in the use of so-called “Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation” (EUV). And this technology is needed to produce powerful chips.

The only serious competitors in terms of EUV use are Nikon and Canon, although according to the “Standard” they only have the previous technology. The fact that this important technology is largely secured by one company is not seen as a problem within the company.

Research into current EUV technology has been conducted in Veldhoven for about 25 years. And the next phase of what is already a leading innovation should soon be available for purchase: a company spokeswoman revealed to the Austrian newspaper that the new “High-NA” machine would cost around 350 million euros and that the first orders received long since. ASML’s marketing department put it this way on Twitter: “We are pushing the boundaries of physics to lead humanity to a brighter future.”

The great desire

Particularly due to the corona pandemic, the demand for chips has increased enormously, because many more electronic devices were suddenly bought – and electronic chips were installed in all of them.

According to the “Standard”, ASML has benefited from this development. The company now has a market capitalization of approximately $263 billion – in 2020 this value was still $16.3 billion. More than 40,000 employees from 143 countries would have generated a turnover of more than 21 billion euros in 2022, ASML said on Twitter. And expect even more in the future.

The political chess piece

The semiconductor industry is important for the development of the global economy. ASML’s monopoly therefore carries the risk that the company will become a figure in the power game between the US and China.

And so the Dutch government recently announced that it will restrict the export of semiconductor technology in the future. These plans were justified with their own national security.

The “Standaard” shows that this decision by the Netherlands plays into the hands of the US (and perhaps even inspired by America), because the states sought allies in their efforts to implement trade restrictions with China. And curbing semiconductor technology exports would align with the US’s desire to reduce technology exports to China.

China was therefore “sniffed” by the decision of the Dutch government, according to the “Standaard”, and filed a complaint against the plans of the Dutch government in The Hague. This conceit may also be because, according to the “Standard”, ASML has not always supplied the most modern technology to China, partly due to an intervention from the US.

Without the company from Veldhoven, it will be more difficult for everyone to develop the next generation of tech products. And yet ASML does not seem to have the longest leverage. In a statement, the company is now trying to position itself against both competition and political players, saying it is fully booked for several years.

(yum)