ASML

ASML, Airbus and Mistral are planted before Brussels. They ask that the application of the law of AI and notify the risks delay

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Europe already has its great artificial intelligence law. What is missing, according to several companies, are the concrete rules to apply it. Only one month after the first standards for the most advanced models, more than 45 large companies – among them ASML, Airbus or Mistral – enter into force – They have signed an open letter asking Brussels to “stop the clock” and postpone their entry into force two years. They point to an unrealistic calendar and the difficulty of competing with the United States or China. What exactly is EU’s artificial intelligence law? The European Union Artificial Intelligence Law entered into force on August 1, 2024after having been politically approved by the European Parliament and the Council in December 2023. It is the first comprehensive regulation of the world focused on this technology, and regulates from how the models are trained to what contexts can be used. The key is in its approach to risk levels: the greater the potential impact, more legal obligations. And what exactly Asml, Airbus, Mistral and the rest ask? They demand a pause two years before the most demanding parts of the law enter into force, especially those that affect high -risk systems and the general purpose models, whose first section is scheduled for August 2025. The reason: The standard is too complex, overlaps with other regulations and still lacks key guides for its application. ASML headquarters in Veldhoven Among those guides is the code of good practices, that had to have been published in spring and still does not be ready. Companies argue that without that document, and with this level of uncertainty, the law can become a brake for European innovation. “This situation puts at risk not only the development of European leaders, but the ability of all industries to deploy the scale required by global competition,” They warn. They also ask that regulatory quality prioritize against speed, and warn that continuing without changes would send a wrong message to the seriousness of Europe in its commitment to technological competitiveness. The names behind this initiative. The request does not arise from an isolated startup or from an informal group of companies. Behind is the EU AI Champions Initiative, a group that groups more than 60 European companies that claim to be committed to the development of a competitive AI and aligned with the EU values. Among its members are names such as ASML, Airbus, Mistral AI, Mercedes-Benz, BNP Paribas, Siemens Energy, Lufthansa, Philips or Publicis. Of course, not all members of the US Ai Champions Initiative signed the letter published this week. Images | Sigmund | Rawpixel | ASML In Xataka | After strictly regulating AI, the European Union has identified a problem: it has been too European Union

These are the chips that are capable of manufacturing without resorting to the most advanced Machine of ASML

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TSMC is not the largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet by chance. Morris Chang He founded this veteran Taiwanese company in 1987, but his leadership took several years to consolidate. At that time the most important integrated circuit manufacturer was Intel, but The TSMC domain In this industry during the last two decades it is irrefatable. Today monopolizes approximately 60% of the market of the manufacture of integrated circuits, and nothing indicates that in the short term Intel or Samsung, its two main competitors, will be able to dispute your leadership. The success of this company has mainly based on its ability to manufacture large -scale chips using the most advanced integration technologies available and with a very high wafer performance. Here lies its very high competitiveness. And, in addition, he has managed to preserve this position for many years, which has helped him transmit confidence to his solid clients such as a rock. His economic performance is nothing other than a consequence of his career: in 2024 he entered 34% more than in 2023. TSMC claims to be able to bring asml UVE lithography equipment to the limit This integrated circuit manufacturer has confirmed that the tests of its 2 Nm node are being successful, so you can start the large -scale manufacture of semiconductors using this photolithography during the second semester of 2025. However, its medium -term plans do not end here. And is that at the end of last April advance During his North American Technological Conference that is also testing his next avant -garde integration technology. It will call it A14 (1.4 Nm), will enter large -scale production in 2028 and we already know some of its most interesting characteristics. Kevin Zhang ensures that TSMC does not need the ASML UVE High-Nna lithography team to make 1.4 Nm One of its most important spots will consist that you will use transistors Nanosheet Gaa (Gate-alall-around) Second generation. The first generation will arrive next to the Lithography N2 (2 Nm) this year. In addition, this integration technology will land with the promise to make possible the manufacture of integrated circuits with higher performance, higher energy efficiency and a more flexible design. The usual. However, TSMC, fortunately, has been wet and in its event some figures made public that allow us to assess to what extent the arrival of the A14 node will be important. And, according to this company, the integrated circuits produced with the A14 lithography will be 15% faster than the chips manufactured in the NEN N2 with the same consumption; They will reduce energy expenditure by 30% at the same speed, and, in addition, they will put on the table the possibility of increasing the density of logic by 20%. According to Kevin ZhangSenior Vice President and Deputy Director of Operations of TSMC, the A14 node will be attractive to make chips for consumption devices and for strictly professional applications, such as, for example, GPU for artificial intelligence (AI). There is no doubt that TSMC’s promises about their lithography A14 sound good, but there is more that we should not overlook. Zhang says that they will not use the equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) and haute opening (High-na) that manufactures the Dutch company ASML in this node. This is a technical capacity exhibition. These machines, the most advanced that currently exist, are suitable for producing integrated circuits of 2 nm and beyond. In fact, The lithography 14a (1.4 Nm) It will be the first in which Intel will use the Uve High opening equipment of ASML. However, as we have just seen, TSMC says it can produce chips capable of dealing with comparable semiconductors of Intel and Samsung using conventional UVE equipment. 2025 will be the year in which the lithographs of 2 nm will start, and, therefore, it will be the prelude to a presumably even more bloody battle: that of the 1.4 Nm. Image | ASML More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | ASML’s new lithography team divides chips manufacturers. TSMC considers not using it until 2030

The global tension cannot with ASML. It will build a huge campus equivalent to 50 soccer fields

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ASML is going to expand. And he will do it in a very ambitious way. This company of the Netherlands has been a lot of pressure by Dutch and American governments because it is The only manufacturer of planet’s lithography equipment capable of producing extreme ultraviolet machines (UVE). These equipment are those used to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors that exist with integration technologies of 7 nm or less. The tension held by the US and China has seriously compromised ASML business in the country led by Xi Jinping. In fact, the sanctions that US administration has deployed and that the Netherlands government has supported them have prevented him from giving his Chinese clients his UVE teams. In addition, since the beginning of 2024 he can not sell in China either Your deep ultraviolet lithography machines (UVP), nor can you provide some support and maintenance services to your Chinese clients. ASML trusts its future despite the delicate situation in which it is located In 2022 the sales of this company in China amounted to 2.9 billion euros, which represented 13.8% of its annual sales. At that time Taiwan was a more important market for Asml than China. In fact, in 2023 the clients of the island bought lithography equipment for a total value of 8,100 million euros, while its Chinese clients disbursed 7.3 billion euros. And, curiously, in 2024 China consolidated as the largest market for ASML with total sales of 10.2 billion euros. ASML has no competition in the manufacture of avant -garde lithographic equipment To understand where this figure comes from, we need to keep in mind something important. As we have seen, ASML cannot sell its most advanced teams to its Chinese clients, such as extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (UVE) or deep ultraviolet (UVP), but at the moment you can give them the solutions that allow them produce chips with mature integration technologies. These are the semiconductors that are mostly used in cars, appliances or electronic devices, among other products, and usually occur in nodes of 28 nm or less advanced. Whatever it is evident that the commercial and technological war that are pouring the US and China in full struggle for world supremacy It is seriously harming both the ASML business and that of many other technology companies, such as Nvidia, AMD, Applyed Materials or Tokyo Electron. In these circumstances it seems reasonable to think that the future of this Dutch company is uncertain, but it is very important that we do not overlook something that we have already addressed in this article: ASML has no competition in the manufacturing market of vanguard lithographic equipment. This favorable circumstance has caused its capacity to produce UVE machines and Haute Opening UVE Be lower than demand, so ASML managers have made a decision: they will build a new campus near Eindhoven (Netherlands) that will allow them continue growing and responding to the growing demand They have their semiconductor manufacturing equipment. According to the newspaper Edthat, precisely, it is housed in Eindhoven, initially these facilities were going to be ready in 2030, but will finally be prepared for the first 20,000 additional employees to be installed in them in 2028. Image | ASML More information | Ed In Xataka | Japan wants to recover leadership as a manufacturer of lithography equipment. And he has a plan to end the Asml monopoly

No one is safe from tariffs. Not even one of the most powerful and necessary companies for the US: ASML

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ASML occupies a privileged position. This company of the Netherlands is the only company on the planet capable of producing equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that are necessary to manufacture avant -garde chips. In fact, these are the machines that use TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology to create Your most advanced integrated circuits. It is currently not exaggerated to affirm that a very important part of the semiconductor industry is supported About Asml’s shoulders. And, despite its indisputable relevance, it is not immune to tariffs. Or, at least, to the uncertainty that has triggered the government’s tariff strategy led by Donald Trump. In fact, According to Reutersthe investors of this Dutch company are very concerned about the impact that US taxes will have on the company’s economic performance. The next tariffs on chips have plunged Asml in uncertainty The US administration has excluded manufacturers of lithography equipment from the base tariff of 10% announced just a few days ago. However, ASML, Tokyo Electron, Canon and other companies that produce these machines have reason to be expectant. And worried. A little over 24 hours ago Donald Trump confirmed that during the next few days will announce the tariff rate with which it will finally tax the imported integrated circuits. He also anticipated that some companies in the semiconductor industry will have some flexibility, although he did not specify either what will be those organizations or to what extent they can continue to import integrated circuits avoiding tariffs. The problem is that with these statements has plunged the entire semiconductor industry in uncertainty. This is the problem facing ASML and the other machine manufacturers to produce integrated circuits. If the US government finally decides to impose tariffs on the importation of lithography equipment manufactured abroad, the semiconductor sector will suffer If the US government finally decides to impose tariffs on the importation of lithography equipment manufactured abroad, the semiconductor sector will suffer. ASML is in a more comfortable position than other chips processing equipment manufacturers because, as I mentioned in the first lines of this article, it is the only company that produces UVE lithography machines. And not having competition in this segment helps. In addition, Intel and TSMC are equipping, or, at least, they plan to do it in the short or medium term, Its new plants of manufacture of semiconductors in the US. And it is impossible to start them Without ASML machines. However, the panorama is gloomy even if the US administration decided to exclude tariffs definitively to the manufacturers of lithography equipment, which is something that can happen. If this last scenario was given, but the US government decides to impose tariffs on imported chips, which right now seems most likely, the business of some of the best ASML customers, such as TSMC, Samsung or SK Hynix, presumably will resent to a greater or lesser extent. And, consequently, it is reasonable to assume that ASML’s economic performance will degrade. This is what worries your investors. TSMC and Samsung They already have factories in the USand SK Hynix is ​​building a plant in West Lafayette (Indiana), but in the short term they will hardly be able to meet the needs of the US market Only with your US plants. We will see what happens finally, but whatever happens is evident that uncertainty is already hurting even an industry as robust as that of integrated circuits. Image | ASML More information | Reuters In Xataka | Nvidia will continue to sell its H20 GPU in China. It has cost a dinner of 1 million dollars per diner

Europe wants to lead chips research of less than 2 nm. ASML is the cornerstone of your plan

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None of The main semiconductor manufacturers The planet is European. TSMC, the company that leads this industry, is from Taiwan. Samsung and Sk Hynix are South Korean. Intel and Micron Technology are Americans. AND SMIC is China. This panorama invites us to accept that Europe has lost the train of the production of integrated circuits, but, in reality, it is not so. At least not at all. And it is that the old continent has ASMLthe Dutch company that leads the design and manufacture of photolithography equipment that is necessary to produce avant -garde semiconductors. And it also has IMEC, an integrated circuit research center founded in 1984 and housed in Leuven (Belgium). It is the most experienced laboratory in the tuning of new integration technologies that we have in Europe. IMEC and ASML work side by side to go beyond the 2 nm Europe does not have the expertise of the US, China, Japan or South Korea when it comes to the industry that develops in its laboratories. In what remains a global power is in border investigation. If we look beyond the semiconductors and look, for example, in Quantum computerswe will verify that the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics housed in Garching (Germany) and the Quantum Computing Center of Delft (Netherlands) are two leading institutions in the research in quantum computing. Europe seeks to develop the necessary integration technologies to produce semiconductors beyond the 2 Nm barrier IMEC has that same prestige, but in the field of innovation in integrated circuits. This is the reason why in May 2024 The European Union decided deliver a subsidy 2.5 billion euros To put a pilot line that will allow the manufacture of avant -garde semiconductors. This subsidy will be part of the ‘Chips Act’ program and has a very specific purpose: to develop integration technologies that are necessary to produce semiconductors Beyond the 2 Nm barrier. This is, in short, the European plan. And it is that IMEC intends to put its technology in the hands of European companies that are dedicated to automotive, telecommunications or the manufacture of medical devices, among other sectors. Diversification can play in your favor because it will contribute to developing the European technological ecosystem on a large scale. However, this research center is not addressing this project alone; He is working side by side with ASML. In fact, this company of the Netherlands has a crucial role in this plan. And he has it because he will deliver to IMEC the photolithography teams that his researchers need to bring to fruition the production of integrated circuits of less than 2 nm. ASML will install in this laboratory even your machine extreme ultraviolet (UVE) and haute openingwhich is the most advanced semiconductor production team it currently has. In fact, the technology of this machine is the only one that is capable of take us beyond the 2 nm. One more note to conclude: the collaboration of IMEC and ASML also seeks to develop integration technologies for DRAM chips, the Fotonic silicon and advanced packaging techniques of integrated circuits. Image | IMEC More information | IMEC In Xataka | China prepares the mate to the US: it will have its own UVE lithography team to make chips in 2025

Philips was the second largest chips manufacturer on the planet. Now it is out of a market led by its creation: ASML

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What we have promised you in the head of this article is strictly true. As Marc Hijink explains in his highly recommended and fresh out of the oven ‘Focus: The Asml Way’during the decade of the 70s of the last century Philips was the second largest manufacturer of semiconductors of the world. The leader in this market at that time was the American company Texas Instrumentsbut the Dutch firm had a long career in the field of innovation and technological development. In the early 70th Philips had more than 400,000 employees, and approximately 90,000 worked in the Netherlands. At that time his business was mainly held on The design and manufacture of televisionsradios, medical equipment, appliances and lighting solutions. His Porfolio was not but that nothing wrong, although his true strength was that absolutely everything was designed and manufactured within Philips. Today this strategy would be impracticable. Anyway, if we stick to the production of integrated circuits, the interesting thing is that the lithography equipment used at that time had also been devised and manufactured by engineers of the company itself. In fact, its first flirting with the semiconductors dates back to the late 50s of the last century. At that time the Philips Board of Directors realized of the enormous potential the chips had And he decided to create several research centers, as well as collaborate with technological universities and laboratories. ASML is the result of an inspired alliance During the decades of the 60s and 70th Philips was already a great technological emporium. In the early 80s he had acquired a lot of experience in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, but the industry sued smaller and capable chips. These requirements represented a technical challenge for company engineers who were responsible for the design of photolithography equipment, so in 1984 the Philips directive dome made a very important decision: he decided to associate with the Dutch company ASM International (Advanced material semiconductor). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the UVP or ASML UVE machines The purpose of this alliance was to take advantage of Philips’s extensive experience in the set -up Design and manufacture avant -garde photolithographic equipment. The result of this collaboration was the birth of ASML (Advanced Materials Semiconductor), the Dutch company that leads the production industry of these machines thanks to the enormous success that their teams have had extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the machines of deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP) or extreme ultraviolet asml. Some of them are TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, SMIC or UMC. However, once we have reached this moment it is reasonable that we ask ourselves why Philips is no longer a relevant actor in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. In ‘Focus: The Asml Way’Marc Hijink tells us that after the creation of Asml Philips he settled. Its chips factories lost competitiveness and little by little they ceased to be able to develop the semiconductors required by the market. Jon Yu, the person in charge of the Newsletter The Asianometrysuggests essentially the same During the conversation who has maintained with Ben Thompson, the author of the interesting publication Stratechery. “As they count on ASML, Philips failed. It was a company with Too much bureaucracy and too much clinging to their customs. It is something similar to what happened with the Japanese in the 90s. Philips had already fulfilled his cycle and deserved to conclude, although he apparently sold his participations too soon. “It is a pity. And it is because there is no doubt that in the Current situation to Europe would have two leading companies in semiconductors. * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | ASML BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | The Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

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