ASML

and has already achieved what only ASML had, according to Reuters

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Let’s continue with historical analogies. Ptolemy Vking of Egypt from 204 to 181 BC. C. —not to be confused with the astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy—, he was very delighted with the great Library of Alexandria. The legendary site brought together human knowledge of the time in hundreds of thousands of papyrus rolls. However, the king was restless: the Pergamon Library (in modern-day Türkiye) did not stop growing. They wanted to get on his back, so he took drastic measures. He prohibited the export of papyrus. The story sounds familiar to you, right? As if he were a modern Trump who wanted to stop innovation by vetoing the export of new technologies, Ptolemy V promised them very happily. “Let’s see how they manage now in Pergamon,” he surely thought. And then Pergamum did what China has also ended up doing: he looked for the chestnuts. Given the scarcity of papyrus, in Pergamon they were forced to perfect a technique that already existed in a rudimentary form: using animal skins to treat, stretch and polish them with the aim of writing on them. They called that new support charta pergamena (Pergamon paper), but its popular name is another much better known one: Parchment. The story, told in the fabulous essay ‘Infinity in a reed‘, by Irene Vallejo, is more than 2,000 years old, but as we see it is a faithful reflection of what is happening now in the United States trade war with China. Specifically, with photolithographic technology, which the US has tried by all means to prevent from reaching China. So China is inventing its own scroll. Been at it for quite some timebut until now it seemed to be totally stuck. At most, rumors tell us, he had managed to create a photolithographic machine with deep ultraviolet (UVP) technology, less advanced than UVE. And not even for those. China’s Manhattan Project The Dutch company ASML has managed to maintain the exclusive of this technology so far. If you wanted to make advanced chips, you needed to buy one of their very complex machines. China had a difficult time facing the US veto, but as has happened in other areas, the Asian giant has not stood by and has tried to find alternatives. And in this case, it seems to have a profile. This is what they indicate in Reuterswhere they indicate that a group of former ASML engineers have managed to decipher the secrets of the company’s EUV machines through reverse engineering. The prototype created by these engineers is already capable of generating light in the extreme ultraviolet range, but has not yet produced functional chipssay the sources cited in said medium. It is expected, however, that this machine will be used to build advanced chips starting in 2028, although some analysts are more conservative and believe that chips will not be manufactured in it until 2030. According to this report, to build said prototype, use was made of parts that were available from ASML machines in alternative markets. Sources consulted by Reuters described this development as the Chinese version of “the Manhattan Project” which led the United States to build the atomic bomb in World War II. The achievement challenges claims made by ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet in April. He then assured that China would need “many, many years” to develop such technology. However, the discovery of this prototype suggests that this period will be significantly reduced. There are of course important obstacles to overcome. One of them is access to high-precision optical systems, and here is another Western company with control of these elements: Zeiss. This project is so crucial to China’s interests that it is being carried out with great secrecy. A Chinese engineer with many years of experience at ASML was signed with a generous bonus, and when he started working He did it with an identification card with a false name. He soon realized that the team members, other former ASML engineers of Chinese nationality, also had fake names. At least two current ASML employees in the Netherlands with Chinese nationality have been contacted by Huawei recruiters since 2020. European laws limit ASML’s ability to know where its former employees have gone to work, but the company has already had disagreements over this issue. In fact, in 2019 they won a case in which a Chinese engineer was sentenced to pay 845 million dollars for stealing trade secrets. The defendant declared bankruptcy but continues operating in Beijing with the support of the Chinese government, according to court documents cited in Reuters. It is now appropriate to return to the lesson taught by the history of Ptolemy V. This king’s boycott had an effect opposite to what he desired. It did not stop Pergamum, it created a superior material – parchment was much more resistant – and it saved literature: many classic works managed to reach us thanks to having been written on parchment and not on papyrus, which would have fallen apart. Now, of course, it remains to be seen if China is indeed the Pergamon of this story. He has the strengths to achieve it, of course. In Xataka | Global tension cannot withstand ASML. He is going to build a huge campus equivalent to 50 football fields

ASML and TSMC are masters of semiconductors. A US startup believes it knows how to end them: with X-rays

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A mysterious American startup called Substrate has made its appearance with a purpose extraordinarily ambitious: compete head to head with ASML. The Dutch company has become the master of the segment of advanced photolithography machines for chip manufacturing, but at Substrate they believe they have the key to turn the tables. Why is it important. ASML has no competition in the market since it placed its first equipment of UVE photolithography. The ASML thing is a monopoly de facto: If a chip manufacturer or designer wants to access to produce the most advanced models, it depends entirely on the Dutch company. No one has managed to stop it since then, and even China, which is trying to free itself from that dependence, it’s really complicated. Substrate. This is the name of this startup that has developed a new team in which use particle acceleration to manage lithography. This technology allows microscopic circuits to be etched onto silicon wafers, and this new company claims that its machines could be in manufacturing plants in the US within the next two years. It all sounds very good. Maybe too much, but they already have funds to try: they have just raised 100 million dollars and among investors There is Peter Thielco-founder of PayPal and current CEO of Palantir. And already, they will try to help create the new TSMC. The challenge is enormous: ASML has invested decades and billions of dollars to perfect its photolithographic equipment, and the complexity of this market makes it very difficult for companies created from scratch to compete. Substrate’s objective is twofold, because it also aims to ensure that its machines enable the affordable chip manufacturing in the US. Or what is the same: it not only wants to compete directly with ASML, but also allow American manufacturers to compete with TSMC on American soil. There it is nothing. Light is everything. When creating those circuits, some of the lines created are so fine that their dimensions are even thinner than the wavelength of light. To solve that ASML problem they do use of extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) through a very complex set of lenses and mirrors. These machines generate a type of artificial light that is capable of engraving those very fine lines on advanced chips. Very special X-rays. In Substrate they propose a different idea. Although they do not give all the details to prevent someone from copying them, their machines use X-ray lithography (LRX). A particle accelerator creates a light source from x-rays with a shorter wavelength, allowing the beam to be used to create advanced chips. Current Substrate machines are currently capable of working with 12 nanometer nodes, comparable to ASML High NA EUV machines: That would put them on par with the most advanced chip production lines in the world. LRX technology is not new. This technique has existed since the 1970s, but had been abandoned because longer wave techniques (UVP and UVE) continued to scale without the need to overcome the great technical challenges of RXL. In substrate they seem to have precisely the solution to those problems, which focused on optics and the need to use massive particle accelerators as a light source. And they promise brutal cost savings. At Substrate they maintain that their LRX equipment will have an estimated cost of about 40 million dollars, compared to 400 million for ASML’s High-NA EUV. In addition, there would be another associated revolution: the possibility of carrying out the so-called single exposure patterning at advanced resolutions (2 nm, 1 nm and beyond), thus eliminating the additional costs of the multipatterning (multiple exposures). If that promise is fulfilled, the production cost of advanced wafers would be 50% lower according to Substrate. But. Of course, it’s one thing to say it and another to do it. The precision of the process, they explain in Semianalysisis a monumental obstacle. The transfer of patterns (going “from light to silicon” almost “carving it”) remains problematic, and among the challenges is solving the roughness of the edges of the printed patterns, which is amplified during engraving. There is also the problem of stochastic noise (shot noise, random fluctuations in photons that cause defects) and secondary electron blurring inherent to the high energy of X-rays, which fundamentally limits resolution. There are also currently problems with the 1.6 nm overlay, which is still high for more advanced processes where 1.0 or 1.2 nm are sought. In Xataka | AMD is today a semiconductor giant. In its beginnings it was something much more humble: a blatant copy of Intel

In its race to make advanced chips, China has tried to copy ASML. It’s going wrong

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China continues to make extraordinary progress when it comes to manufacturing its own advanced chips, but it still has a big problem: it does not currently have manufacturing equipment. extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) own. Of course is working in the development of this technology, and one of the strategies it is following to overcome this challenge is unique… and almost obvious. Reverse engineering. In his 2010 book ‘Copycats’ Professor Oded Shenkar argued that it is often the case that imitators end up triumphing over innovators. Although in the West the view is the opposite, in China there is a positive view of copying and reverse engineering processes are an important tool to copy technologies. That is what the country has supposedly tried, as indicated in The National Interest (TNI). From producing for the world to producing for themselves. Already we review the conclusions from the book ‘Apple in China’, which is a perfect example of how by delegating production to China, Western companies have ended up contributing to the country’s development and its specialization. The trade war has logically made China now seek its independence in the face of the vetoes it is suffering from developing its own technological solutions. From UVP to UVE. There has already been significant progress in this area, and recently we counted as a Chinese manufacturer already has a prototype of a UVP machine (deep ultraviolet) for the creation of relatively advanced chips. If there is a crucial challenge to be able to create these even more advanced chips, it is power. have UVE photolithography machinesbut having that first problem solved is important to make the leap to EUV technology. And this is where something unique has been discovered. Let’s see how it works inside. As revealed in TNI, it has been revealed that China has been “caught” trying to reverse engineer a machine ASML UVP Photolithography. Not so much to mass produce these machines, sources indicate, but because Chinese technicians are trying to learn how they work in order to replicate them and, from them, develop more advanced machines and chips. It’s not broken just because. However, it seems that when disassembling one of these ASML systems, Chinese technicians damaged it. That made them notify the official ASML technicians to solve the problem. When they arrived, they discovered that the machine had not simply broken, but that the Chinese had tried to dismantle it and then reassemble it. ASML’s de facto monopoly. ASML’s UVE photolithography machines are considered the most complex and advanced in the world, and the truth is that today the Dutch company has a de facto monopoly with such systems. It is these machines that allow access to the production of the most advanced chips – such as those used in NVIDIA’s modern AI accelerators – and have become the true bottleneck of the semiconductor industry. Beyond the damaged machine. The incident reveals two crucial points. The first, Beijing’s extreme urgency to be able to control chip production from start to finish. The second is that the challenge of creating these machines goes beyond mere hardware copying: lithography systems require extraordinary technical mastery of components such as precision optics or materials science. Too many obstacles? China may have brilliant engineers, but ASML machines also have a highly specialized supply chain which undoubtedly makes it difficult for such a machine to be built entirely in China. A good example is Zeiss SMTthe German company that supplies the ultra-precision optical systems and mirrors needed for UVE and advanced UVP photolithography systems. A long way to go. This supposed problem reveals the difficulties that China is going through in order to have machines with advanced photolithographic technologies. At Nikkei Asia They were already talking in July about how complex it is to achieve a “Chinese ASML.” In this analysis they cited Didier Scemama, director of hardware research at BofA Global Research, who estimated that China still has years to achieve something like this. “It may take 5, 10, 15 years, we don’t know. Will it be competitive with what ASML does? It’s highly unlikely, but it will be good enough for China.” Image | Zeiss In Xataka | Holland has just declared war on China in the most important battle of the century: control of semiconductors

It is an ASML ‘Made in China’

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China had a great disadvantage in semiconductors. It seems to be solving it, because the Chinese manufacturer of SMIC semiconductors is testing a new machine from deep ultraviolet photolithography (UVP) that yes, is still one step behind the extreme ultraviolet machines (UVE). We are facing a potential turn of events in this Chips war that maintain US and China and that now becomes especially interesting. Why is it important. Sources close to this project have indicated In Financial Times that SMIC is testing a UVP machine manufactured by a Shanghai startup called Yuliangsheng. If these initial tests are successful we will be facing a great Chinese victory in the semiconductor sector. One that will above all will allow you to further reduce western technology dependence and thus accelerate the production of advanced chips of AI, for example. A great step for Chinese photolithography. Lin Qingyuan, a semiconductor analyst at the Bernstein consultant, explained precisely as if this DUV machine meets expectations, “will represent an important step for Chinese companies, which can start from this technological milestone to create machines (of photolithography) increasingly advanced.” The machine makes use of “immersion technology”, a technique also uses by ASML in its machines. But. As indicated in FT, although most of the YulianSheng UVP machine are local, there are some parts that have been obtained abroad. That causes there to be some dependence on components that China does not manufacture at the moment, but the company is trying to develop them to solve that problem. Patience. Not just that. Adjusting these UVP machines have time. This process is necessary to achieve adequate stability and that chips can occur without defects. That period can become up to one year, which makes this Chinese race to avoid the dependence of foreign suppliers. Those 7 nm have a trick. The UVP machine that SMIC is testing obtaining 7 nm chips. Speaking of nanometers have long been talking about We don’t talk so much of the physical dimensions of the semiconductors and of the generation in which they are at the level of benefits and efficiency. These machines could even achieve 5 Nm chips although more likely that the rhythm of production of reliable chips falls. China is still linked to UVP machines. The new YulianSheng UVP machines are apparently more advanced than those already worked in some Chinese manufacturers. This also limits Chinese innovation capacity, which depends on machines that were bought before Restrictions entered into force. These UVP machines are the ones that for example They are used for Huawei Ascend chips. Sicarrier advances. The YuliangSheng matrix It is none other than Sicarrierwhich was created in 2021 and that began to be known in March. It was then that he showed advanced microchips production machines that rivaled those of Tokyo Electron or Applyed Materials. This company has a project to develop an EUV machine, which has as its name “Monte Everest”. Care, Asml. Until now, Chinese semiconductor manufacturers, like many others worldwide, have depended on the advanced photolithography machines of the Dutch company ASML. The veto for the commercial war between China and the US had notably limited the access of Chinese companies to these machines, which prevented them from competing in equal cnditions. Although there were some options – Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment also had DUV machines – these were less advanced. And what about EUV machines? Although the project is an important step forward for the Chinese semiconductor industry, there is an even more important leap to the machines of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE), which are those used to produce the most advanced chips of companies such as NVIDIA. At present, ASML cannot sell EUV teams to China, but be careful: the Asian giant He is already working to access this technology. China will continue a step back. Not being able to access EUV machines is still very important to slow down Chinese innovation capacity. TSMC and other companies already They make use of EUV Machines of ASML Able to work with photolithographic nodes of 2 Nm, something that significantly increases the chip density and the efficiency and power of all types of processors, including those used for AI accelerators that sell NVIDIA. In Xataka | This is China’s big problem with chips: Huawei will manufacture its Kirin X90 for PC using the 7 Nm of SMIC

The undisputed winner of the aggressive competition of TSMC, Intel and Samsung is a European company: ASML

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Integrated 2 nm circuits are about to disembark in the market. Users know that nanometers have lost much of their usefulness, and that, in reality, They represent a category of semiconductors. In fact, they no longer faithfully reflect the length of logical doors or other physical parameter, such as the distance between transistors. Each chips manufacturer He manages them with freedomwhich prevents us from directly comparing the lithographs that try to “sell us.” Whatever the important thing is that TSMC, Intel and Samsung are about to engage in a new battle that seeks to capture the maximum possible number of customers for their 2 Nm or comparable line nodes. Whatever happens we can be sure that the great beneficiary of this contest will be The Dutch Company ASML. And it will be because it is the only manufacturer on the planet that produces the equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) and haute opening that are necessary to go beyond the 2 Nm reaching the optimal performance. Digitimes Asia He has just confirmed that those responsible for the Samsung semiconductors manufacture are weighing the possibility of increasing the number of Uve haute opening machines that will buy at ASML. And, according to this Asian medium, it will do it because it needs to reduce the technological and commercial gap that separates it from TSMC, which leads the chip market with A fee close to 60%. The Uve High Opening machines are still in the test phase, but there are no doubt that they will be the authentic protagonists of the semiconductor industry in 2026 and successive years. ASML Haute Opening Lithography Machography is an engineering prodigy It weighs as much as two Airbus A320 and incorporates more than 100,000 pieces, 3,000 cables, 40,000 bolts, and also more than 2 km of electrical connections. The photolithography team Twinscan Exe: 5000 Designed and manufactured by ASML is the most sophisticated integrated circuit production machine that exists. And also the most expensive. The most up -to -date information we have reflects that only one of these teams costs 350 million euroswhich will surely cause some chips manufacturers think twice Before buying it. ASML plans to deliver to its customers annually from 2025 about 20 Uve Haute Opening teams ASML engineers have invested a decade in the development of the technology necessary to set up this machine, which, in reality, is a team of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) second generation. This company of the Netherlands plans to deliver to its customers annually From 2025 about 20 teams of this type with a purpose: put in their hands the possibility of producing chips of 2 nm and beyond. Interestingly, to develop this machine, ASML engineers have made a very advanced optical architecture that has an opening of 0.55 compared to the 0.33 value that the first -generation UVE lithography equipment has. This refinement of the optics allows to transfer to the wafer patterns of greater resolution, hence it is possible to manufacture chips using more advanced integration technologies than those currently used in the nodes of 3 Nm. However, this is not all. ASML has also improved the mechanical systems that are responsible for the manipulation of wafers with the purpose of making it possible for a single UVE Machine to be able to produce more than 200 wafers per hour. The cover photography of this article allows us to intuit the extreme complexity and sophistication that one of these teams has, which, by the way, would not be possible without the cooperation of other companies, such as the German Zeiss or Cymer, a company of American origin that is currently consolidated within the ASML structure. Somehow this last company Delivery to ASML the raw material that need their photolithography machines. And that raw material is none other than the ultraviolet light that is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the Silicon wafer. Image | ASML More information | Digitimes Asia In Xataka | The great covered in the War of Critical Minerals is Tungsten. The US needs it and 83% have it China

It cannot be allowed penalizing with Asml tariffs

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The commercial agreement signed by Donald Trump, the US president, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, at the end of last week states that the majority of the products imported by the US and manufactured by Europe will have a 15% tariff. However, strategic products will not be subject to any tariff. And the photolithography equipment that designs and manufactures The Dutch Company ASML They have a strategic role for both Europe and the US. “We have agreed to zero tariffs for zero for a series of strategic products,” Clarifies the European Commission statement. “In this agreement all aircraft and their components are included, as well as some chemicals, generic components, semiconductor equipment, agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. And we will continue working to add more products to this list.” The US is a very important market for ASML, so this exemption from tariffs benefits it. Intel, Globalfoundries, Micron Technology, Texas Instruments, Samsung and TSMC are some of its clients in the country led by Donald Trump. These last two companies are not Americans, but They have chips factories in the US. In fact, the exemption of tariffs is so important for these companies as for ASML because the latter is the only company that produces extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (UVE). And they need them in some of their plants to produce avant -garde chips. For Asml your effective monopoly is everything ASML has no competition since its first UVE photolithography team placed on the market. Japanese Canon and Nikon companies, their natural competitors, also tried to develop this machine, but failed in the attempt. The technical and economic resources that were necessary to make it possible were so large that they decided to retire from the struggle with ASML. Free road. Today the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing machines that we can find in the TSMC, Intel, Samsung or SK Hynix plants It produces them ASML. Currently his reign seems imperturbable. Canon has developed a team of nano -impression lithography that it seeks to compete from you to you with the UVE machines of ASML, but for the moment it is not clear that this technology will be able to rival The most advanced team of the Dutch company: the machine of High Opening Photolithography (UVE). Presumably thanks to it they can produce chips of less than 1 nm before this decade expires. The most advanced chips manufacturing machines that we can find in the TSMC, Intel, Samsung or SK Hynix plants produce ASML UVE photolithography equipment is extraordinarily sophisticated. The GPUs for artificial intelligence more advanced from Nvidia; The most powerful soc that Apple or the CPUs with the highest AMD performance are possible thanks to them. Of course, none of these companies make their own chips. They design them, but they are produced by the Taiwanese company TSMC using ASML UVE lithography machines. However, this European Corporation has not developed solo all innovations that have made its most advanced integrated circuit production equipment possible. One of its most important allies is the American company Cymer. This company founded in 1986 specializes in the manufacture of lasers and deep ultraviolet light sources (UVP) and extreme (UVE). It has a very close relationship with ASML for many years; In fact, the role that Cymer manufactures in lithography machines is so relevant than in 2013 ASML bought this company of San Diego with the purpose of investing in it to accelerate the development of the technologies involved in UVE lithography. Anyway, the transport of ultraviolet light from the fountain that produces it to the wafer is only possible thanks to the intervention of the mirrors that the other great ally of ASML designs and manufactures: the German company Zeiss. The role of Zeiss’s optical elements in these lithography equipment is crucial. And it is because they are responsible, leaving aside the most complex details, of moving the UVE light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm from the source that is responsible for its emission to the mask contained in the geometric pattern that is necessary to translate into the silicon wafer. Image | ASML More information | European Commission In Xataka | The US is softening its pressure on China. He has realized that the margin has ended with his maximum rival

The US is throwing blows to China. Many of them are fitting the European chips giant ASML

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ASML It is going well, but it could go much better. This Dutch company is the most important photolithography equipment manufacturer on the planet. And it is because it is the only one that can offer its customers the machines of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) that are necessary to MANUFACTE INTEGRATED VANGUARD CIRCUITS. Even so, during the last three years this company is constantly undergoing all types of fluctuations. In fact, in the last hours his actions They have dropped to 7.1% Due to the threat that the very likely US tariffs represent the importation of foreign lithography equipment. And also to the uncertainty that looms over the growth of ASML In full struggle between China and the USA. Christophe Fouquet, the general director of this company, has the obligation to defend the interests of his company. And currently the tension held by the US and China does not make it easy. The sanctions that They have deployed US and the Netherlands They prevent Asml selling Your most advanced lithography teams To its Chinese clients. And neither can some maintenance and after -sales services services provide. 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. However, in 2024 the country led by Xi Jinping was consolidated as The largest market for ASML with total sales of 10.2 billion euros. Asml’s rebellion Christophe Fouquet has removed the growth forecast that he and the board of directors of this company had set by 2026. This movement has contributed, as I mentioned a few lines above, to the fall of ASML’s actions. Anyway, it is understandable that this executive has taken this path: “We continue to observe a growing uncertainty promoted by macroeconomic and geopolitical events,” He has declared Fouquet In a statement. “Although we continue to prepare to grow in 2026, we cannot confirm it yet.” The evolution experienced by the actions of this company supports its prudence. In fact, 33% have fallen during the last year. This behavior is anomalous in a company that not only leads the market of photolithography equipment; In addition, it is the only one that markets UVE machines. At the end of last March Christophe Fouquet declared that he was convinced that the US would continue to put pressure on his partners to even more harden the sanctions that seek to stop the development of the Chinese industry of the integrated circuits. “Although we continue to prepare to grow in 2026, we cannot confirm it yet” However, Fouquet’s statements did not end here. He also defended that Europe “should decide for itself what you want” and “should not be dictated by anyone else.” Otherwise, He warnedleading European companies in strategic technologies, among which are ASML, could consider moving outside the old continent. His tone reflected a certain degree of helplessness, but in practice his company would be very difficult to relocate out of Europe. Anyway one of the figures in which we have repaired a few lines above gives us a very accurate track about how A ASML is dealing with prohibitions from the US and endorsed by the Government of the Netherlands that They could greatly degrade your business. As we have seen, in 2024 China was consolidated as its largest market. This success is because Chinese manufacturers of integrated circuits have bought A ASML many suitable photolithography equipment to produce mature semiconductors. On the other hand, currently TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Globalfoundries, Micron Technology and Sk Hynix are well building new chip manufacturing plants, they are well expanding some of those they have in operation. In any case, they all have something in common: they are buying the UVE and UVP equipment of ASML. And, in addition, TSMC, Intel and Samsung presumably will acquire for the next three years a large number of UVE Machines of Haute Opening. It is evident that even in the complicated current situation It is difficult to lie to ASML. At the moment his business in China endures, and will continue to do it at least until the moment when Chinese manufacturers of lithography equipment have their own UVE machines. Image | ASML More information | SCMP In Xataka | Japan wants to recover leadership as a manufacturer of lithography equipment. And he has a plan to end the Asml monopoly

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

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