{"id":34706,"date":"2026-07-29T18:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/34706\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:10:28","slug":"chinas-chip-tool-push-shows-asml-caught-in-us-china-squeeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/34706\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s chip tool push shows ASML caught in US-China squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">By Toby Sterling  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">AMSTERDAM, July 28 (Reuters) &#8211; China&#8217;s launch of a homegrown type of advanced lithography chip printing machine is spotlighting how European chip tool maker ASML, whose recent share price surge made it Europe&#8217;s most valuable listed company, is being squeezed between two sides.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">On \u200cthe one hand, U.S. controls on exports of high-tech goods to China are threatening to reduce access to a major market; and on \u200cthe other, Beijing&#8217;s push for technological independence in areas such as chip production raises the possibility of a China-based competitor.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Reuters reported on Tuesday that a little-known Chinese state-owned firm called Shanghai Aishengna \u200bElectronic Technology Group was leading an effort to mass produce locally made immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography tools, key to modern chipmaking.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ASML, which dominates the market for DUV and more cutting-edge EUV machines that print circuitry on <a href=\"https:\/\/tech.yahoo.com\/ai\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:AI;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;AI&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"no-affiliate-link link\">AI<\/a> chips, saw its shares fall some 10% in two days following this report, enough to wipe more than \u20ac60 billion off its stock market value.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Tech news site The Information first reported the Chinese attempt on Monday.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The move spotlights a risk for ASML, whose shares have skyrocketed in the \u200clast year and are up around 50% in 2026, \u2060with some investors confident it could become Europe&#8217;s first trillion-dollar firm.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">DAMAGE FOR NOW MAY BE LIMITED  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ASML has a dominant position in the market for lithography tools, including its mid-range DUV devices. The very best chips require ASML&#8217;s cutting-edge EUV tools that \u2060China cannot currently make or obtain.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The Information said China plans to make five immersion DUV tools this year and 20 in 2027, selling them to major Chinese chipmakers. That remains far below the sales of ASML, which shipped 131 such systems in 2025. So damage even in the medium term will be limited, JPMorgan analysts argued in a \u200bnote.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;That \u200bsaid, this is another data point in China&#8217;s equipment self-sufficiency story, and it raises the \u200blong-term risk to ASML&#8217;s China revenue,&#8221; analysts at the investment \u200cbank said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">EXPORT CONTROLS BOOST CASE FOR CHINA-MADE CHIP PRINTERS  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote, was more downbeat, saying that the rise of a Chinese competitor could be a &#8220;nightmare scenario&#8221; for ASML if it breaks its hold on the DUV market.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ASML said this month it expects 20% of revenue, or around \u20ac9 billion worth, will come from China this year.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">That&#8217;s despite rounds of U.S.-led export controls that prevent the firm from selling its most advanced EUV product line in China, as well as its best immersion DUV tools.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The U.S. Congress is debating legislation that could block ASML&#8217;s remaining exports of immersion DUV tools &#8212; the segment Aishengna is targeting.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Sanne van der \u200cLugt, a researcher affiliated with the Netherlands&#8217; Leiden Asia Center, said the development underscored how \u200btougher rules on China could backfire.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;What this shows is that U.S. export controls successfully created \u200ba business case for Chinese lithography,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was not what they \u200bwere intended to do, but that is the outcome.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Launching an immersion DUV tool, however, is not the same as becoming competitive \u200cwith ASML. The Dutch company built a dominant position in \u200bDUV by steady improvement in its machines&#8217; \u200byield and throughput over two decades, pushing aside competitors including Japan&#8217;s Nikon and Canon.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Aishengna&#8217;s new DUV machine will need improvement, and any chipmaker that chooses a less-capable system would normally be accepting lower productivity and a higher cost per chip.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Export controls of course change that calculation: Chinese chipmakers \u200bmay be willing to accept a weaker domestic machine \u200cif the alternative is dependence on foreign tools whose sale or servicing could later be blocked by the United States.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Chinese firms &#8220;already do not \u200breally trust that they can rely on Dutch technology in the long run,&#8221; Van der Lugt said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;For Chinese customers it may be \u200bthis or nothing.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Adam Jourdan and David Holmes)  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Toby Sterling AMSTERDAM, July 28 (Reuters) &#8211; China&#8217;s launch of a homegrown type of advanced lithography chip&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[65,87,2114],"class_list":["post-34706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-asml","tag-asml","tag-china","tag-duv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}