ASML is the only company in the world that can offer EUV lithography machines, and it occupies a monopoly position in the high-end lithography machine market. In order to curb China's chip development, the United States has continuously revised chip rules and joined forces with other semiconductor industries to impose a blockade on China. This makes China's semiconductor industry face the "pain of lithography machine" and it is difficult to break through the technical bottleneck.
Shortly after the U.S. persuaded the Netherlands to restrict the export of lithography machines to China, ASML's global president, Wennink, visited China
On March 28, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with Wennink, and before that, he also met with senior executives of Qualcomm, Apple, Mercedes-Benz and other foreign companies. The fact that these foreign executives have come to China shows the importance they attach to the Chinese market, and also reflects their dissatisfaction with the "decoupling and breaking the chain" policy of the United States.
Wang Wentao said that China will continue to open up at a high level and provide a good business environment and efficient services for multinational companies, including ASML. He also hopes that ASML will strengthen its confidence in cooperation with China and contribute to maintaining the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain.
For ASML, benefits are paramount. Since 1998, ASML has installed more than 1,000 units in Chinese mainland and employed more than 1,500 people. ASML executives have also repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Chinese market to ASML and the global semiconductor market.
Especially in the mature process from 20nm to 65nm, ASML's DUV lithography machine dominates. ASML also did not fully obey the will of the United States and still shipped some DUV lithography machines to China, which disrupted the US restriction plan.
Therefore, some netizens believe that ASML is inseparable from Chinese mainland, because Chinese mainland is its largest customer, and it is unrealistic for the United States to ban ASML from shipping to Chinese mainland.
However, the data shows that ASML's sales and revenue in the Chinese market are declining, and last year's revenue in the Chinese market was only 21EUR 600 million, a decrease compared to 2021. Compared with the high growth of the Chinese mainland market, ASML's performance is not ideal. The main reason for this is that the Netherlands, after facing US pressure and the threat of sanctions, finally relented and restricted the export of EUV lithography machines, a key equipment for making high-end chips, to China.
In addition, ASML's main customers have also been **, and the main customers of EUV lithography machines are TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron and SK hynix. Originally, SMIC was also supposed to be one of the customers of EUV lithography machines, but due to restrictions, it was unable to obtain EUV lithography machines, which also made ASML lose an important market.
Therefore, we should not overestimate our position in the ASML market, only with independent technology can we ensure our own development, otherwise ASML's DUV lithography machine may be cut off by the United States at any time**.
Of course, for China, access to ASML's lithography machine technology remains an important goal. The move of ASML's global president to China may disrupt the U.S. plan to restrict China's semiconductor development.
How important is ASML to "China Chip"?
Taking Huawei as an example, Huawei can independently design Kirin chips, but it cannot manufacture them by itself, and needs to find TSMC foundry. Why should you find a TSMC foundry?Because TSMC can manufacture advanced chips, and manufacturing advanced chips requires lithography equipment provided by ASML. Therefore, without high-end lithography equipment, it is impossible to manufacture high-end chips.
The United States wants to contain China, which has become the "consensus" of the American elites. According to the Russian satellite network, the United States would rather destroy Taiwan's TSMC and other semiconductor factories than let them "fall into the hands of Chinese mainland." Once Chinese mainland reunifies Taiwan, the United States will destroy Taiwan's semiconductor factories and prevent China from making up for technological shortcomings and controlling the world economy.
In doing so, the United States reflects its fears and anxieties. The problem is that China does not rely on TSMC and can still rise in science and technology, as netizens said: whether the United States destroys TSMC or not, it cannot stop the pace of China's scientific and technological progress.
At present, many cutting-edge technologies require the use of chips, and the performance of chips directly determines the quality of products. There are very few countries that can produce chips, and the companies that can produce high-end chips are TSMC, Samsung and Intel. The only countries that can produce lithography machines are the Netherlands, Japan, China, the United States, etc., and even fewer countries can produce high-end lithography machines.
The only company that produces high-end lithography machines is ASML in the Netherlands, and the cost of a high-end lithography machine is as high as hundreds of millions of dollars. The annual production capacity is only a few units, and it is very expensive. Some customers, even if they have money, may not be able to buy it, because ASML is not the final decision-maker, and it depends on whether the United States agrees.
Because ASML's lithography equipment also uses a lot of American technology, and ASML's largest shareholder and second largest shareholder are American capital. This is equivalent to putting ASML in the hands of the United States.
In order to limit China's rise, the United States has constantly revised chip rules, and even coerced the Netherlands to take the best protection against China, the main purpose of which is to cut off the process below 14nm. This kind of artificially promoting industrial decoupling and breaking the chain has seriously hindered the development of the world economy.