The US Commerce Secretary has expressed concerns that one of ASML's extreme ultraviolet lithography machines may have ended up in China. ASML denies this, stating that it tracks every machine it has shipped and that none are in China. The company's CEO, Christophe Fouquet, says that ASML has built an internal firewall to prevent access to EUV technology by unauthorized employees, including those in China.
The US government's investigation is significant, given ASML's monopoly on EUV lithography technology, which is crucial for producing advanced semiconductor patterns. If an EUV machine were to be found in China, it would represent a major breach of export controls.
The Commerce Department has invested $150 million in a startup developing a next-generation light-source technology that could potentially challenge ASML's EUV monopoly. However, it is unclear whether this investment is related to the current investigation.
