Biden: No sale of ASML machines to the Chinese

Biden: No sale of ASML machines to the Chinese

23. Juli 2021 0 Von Horst Buchwald

Biden: No sale of ASML machines to the Chinese

Berlin, 23.7.2021

The Biden – Administration has asked the Dutch government to make sure that ASML Holding does not sell any of its „extreme ultraviolet lithography“ machines to China.

Background: only with these 150 million expensive and 180 tons heavy machines the tiny 3-6nm chips can be produced and thus the massive demand can be met. The prerequisite for this is the use of EUV lithography, which is currently dominated by ASML alone on the world market. he companies such as Intel, Samsung and TSMC use the machines to be able to produce chips for the „Internet of things“. These include smartphones, AI systems and 5G mobile devices.

Chinese corporations such as Huawei wanted to buy the machines to reduce their dependence on foreign chip imports. Beijing, meanwhile, has begun to develop its own fully self-sufficient chip industry. Because export controls are in place in the Netherlands, Chinese engineers have to develop these machines and the technology themselves. If the experts have not miscalculated, this project will require about $25 billion as well as up to five years of development time.

Seen in this light, the USA and its European allies have the better cards in the tech war with the Chinese for the time being.