If we cannot manufacture chips, we will at least control how they are manufactured

The Dutch company ASML has invested 1.3 billion euros in Mistral AIbecoming your greatest shareholder. Far from being another financial operation, reading is that it is Europe trying to control world semiconductor manufacturing. Without manufacturing a single chip.

The current situation. ASML already has the absolute monopoly of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUV)the only ones capable of manufacturing chips of less than 7 nanometers.

Without their teams of 180 million dollars, nor TSMC, nor Samsung, nor can they produce advanced semiconductors. Now he also wants to control the software that optimizes those machines.

Why is it important. The processes of photolithography They generate data petabytes.

• A 1% improvement in production yield can use thousands of millions.
• If Mistral becomes the standard AI to optimize ASML machines, Europe would control both hardware and “brain” that makes it work.

This play resolves the current technological trilema: the United States designs the chips, Asia manufactures them. And Europe? Europe could control the tools and processes that make its manufacture possible.

The context. TSMC has already begun to use Nvidia to optimize its plants. China develops its own systems. If ASML does not act, its Asian customers will optimize the machines without their participation, turning their technology into a Commodity.

With Mistraleach software update would be a reason to maintain the monopoly. And most valuable: they would have access to the most critical manufacturing data in the world.

Yes, but. The operation has its risks. Mistral needs Nvidia chips to train its models (irony: use American technology to control world manufacturing). And China could accelerate its efforts of technological independence if you perceive this alliance as a hostile.

In addition, going from language models to specialized industrialized is not a triviality. Mistral will need very specific talent, which today works in Google or TSMC.

In perspective. This alliance recognizes an uncomfortable reality: Europe has lost the battle of direct chips manufacturing. But you can win the process control war. It is like not knowing how to cook but owns all ovens and recipes.

Once the factories optimize their processes with Mistralchanging another system would be extremely expensive. He is a technical lock disguised as a service.

The long -term game. Between 2025 and 2027 we will see the integration of Mistral models into the ASML software. By 2030, Europe could have a duo that controls how all the advanced chips in the world are manufactured.

In the end this story does not go on chatbots or on generative. It is about using AI as a Trojan horse to insert European dependence on the most critical process of the digital economy. ASML already showed that You can master an industry by controlling a single key point. Now he wants to control two: the hardware and the software that optimizes it.

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