On June 20, ASML, a major semiconductor equipment manufacturer in the Netherlands, warned that,If the supply of semiconductor equipment to mainland China is stopped, the global semiconductor industry chain will face disruption. Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. government wants to limit the company’s sales of equipment to mainland China.
Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, said: “I think it’s important to realize that mainland China is an important player in the semiconductor industry. Whether it’s a mature process or a mainstream semiconductor process, mainland China is a very important supplier to the global market, so you have to be careful what you’re doing. Politicians have come up with plans to restrict the export of DUVs to mainland China from time to time, but the world cannot ignore the fact that mainland China has the chip manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of the global electronics market.”
Mainland China is the third largest market for ASMLsecond only to Taiwan and South Korea, accounting for about 16% of its 2021 sales, or 2.1 billion euros.
Since 2019, the Dutch government has struck a deal with the United States not to grant ASML a license to sell state-of-the-art EUV lithography machines to mainland Chinese chipmakers. However, ASML can continue to sell DUV lithography machines to mainland customers. Most of the chips in the world are made with DUV lithography machines.
In the context of the increasingly fierce Sino-US trade war, the United States is still in discussions to pressure ASML to not sell other equipment such as DUVs to mainland China. In 2021, the U.S. National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence, led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, recommended that the U.S. State and Commerce Departments should push allies to deny China access to top-tier DUVs, EUVs and related tools. The Dutch foreign minister also confirmed that the United States and the Netherlands are discussing the matter.
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