manufacturing

China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away

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In the early 2000s, many Chinese technology companies they became famous manufacturing thermal cameras, fiber optics or cheap electronic components for the civilian market. Two decades later, several of those same companies appear linked to one of the most ambitious military programs on the planet. Xi’s missile factory. Reuters counted in an extensive report that China is manufacturing missiles at a speed that is beginning to transform entire sectors of its economy. What for years was a relatively opaque military ecosystem is becoming a gigantic industrial chain where dozens of private and state companies are skyrocketing income thanks to the accelerated rearmament promoted by Xi Jinping. The most revealing data is not only the increase in chinese arsenalbut the number of companies that already partially make a living from it: manufacturers of infrared sensors, fiber optics, stealth coatings, 3D printed metals or specialized electronic systems are registering record profits while much of the Chinese economy is going through much more serious difficulties. Beijing has achieved something that few countries have achieved on this scale: merge civil and military industry to the point of converting missile development into a strategic economic engine. The real target is further away than Taiwan. The island constantly appears as the center of any possible conflict in Asia-Pacific, but depending on the mediumthe Chinese missile deployment points to something broader. Beijing not only wants the ability to invade or blockade the island, it wants to prevent the United States from being able to intervene effectively. And there appears the true strategic objective located about 3,000 kilometers away: guam. As we have counted At other times, the island functions as one of the main US military nodes in the Western Pacific, a huge air, naval and logistics platform from which Washington could sustain operations around Taiwan. That is why China has been developing systems specifically designed to threaten it for years, like the DF-26known precisely as “Guam Express”. Chinese military logic is relatively simple: If it manages to put Guam at risk, it greatly complicates the US ability to project power near its coasts and breaks one of Washington’s great strategic advantages in the region. Economy oriented to manufacturing war. Plus: Xi’s program does not depend solely from state giants such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation or China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The most striking thing is how civil companies seemingly normal have ended up integrated into the Chinese military ecosystem. Some began manufacturing thermal sensors to detect fever during the SARS epidemic and today produce components for missiles and military drones. Others develop fiber optics for precision navigation or stealthy materials capable of reducing radar detection of aircraft and projectiles. The result is an industrial structure that is extremely difficult to isolate through sanctions, because many of these companies operate simultaneously in civilian and military markets. The United States has been trying to limit Chinese access to advanced chips and sensitive technologies, but Beijing has responded by expanding an increasingly extensive and autonomous national network of suppliers. The effect of the war on Iran. The war between the United States and Iran has further reinforced this arms race. While Washington consumes part of its missile and ammunition reserves In the Middle East, China is carefully observing how modern wars are becoming conflicts of industrial attrition where the ability to manufacture and replenish weapons quickly begins to be as important as the individual technological quality of each system. That is where Beijing believes it has an advantage. The reason? China already has of thousands of missiles ballistic and cruise able to cover much of the Indo-Pacific, and the expansion rate it’s still huge despite the purges internal affairs within the Chinese Army and the investigation of senior commanders for corruption. In some ways, Xi seems to be preparing the country for a prolonged scenario of military competition where whoever manages to keep production lines open the longest will survive. The new global race. All of this is happening while much of the planet simultaneously accelerates its rearmament. France, South Korea, USA either Japan are increasing production and military spending, but the Chinese case stands out for its industrial dimension and by the speed at which it evolves. Beijing not only increases the number of missiles, it also develops new hypersonic generationsexpands its nuclear arsenal and tests systems capable of threatening aircraft carriers, air bases and targets thousands of kilometers away. The big concern in Washington is that China is approaching a point where it can sustain a conflict long thanks to a combination of mass production, relatively low costs and enormous integration between civil companies and defense. That is why the growth of the missile program China is beginning to be interpreted less as simple regional rearmament and more as the silent construction of an economy prepared to compete militarily with the United States on a global scale. Image | CCTV In Xataka | The YJ-20 has just entered the scene at the most delicate moment: China has launched its hypersonic missile against the US and Japan In Xataka | China is beating the US with a simple strategy: manufacturing hypersonic missiles at the price of a Tesla

Manufacturing 60 machines a year may not seem like much. In practice, those of the European ASML are setting the pace of AI

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Sixty machines a year sounds like a lot when we talk about artificial intelligence. We are used to huge numbers: data centers, billions of dollars and increasingly ambitious models. But AI also depends on things that are much more physical and difficult to scale. And that’s where ASMLa European company that manufactures lithography equipment to produce advanced chips, becomes a difficult piece to avoid. This year it will manufacture at least 60 machines. And they will be indispensable. To get an idea of ​​scale, artificial intelligence does not rely solely on better models. Just a few days ago, Reuters pointed out that Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet plan to allocate more than $600 billion in capital spending in 2026 to expand their AI infrastructure. These players need semiconductor manufacturers, who need advanced technology to produce the chips that will equip their customers’ future data centers. Here ASML appears in all its dimension. The Dutch company does not manufacture the chips that will end up in data centers, but it does manufacture the machines that allow the most advanced ones to be produced at scale. For now, because China is accelerating this raceis the only global supplier of this equipment, known as extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. This position explains why a company based in Veldhoven has become such a relevant piece for a career that is usually viewed from Silicon Valley or Taiwan, but that also has a decisive role in Europe. The European manufacturer that sets the pace for AI The striking thing is that the great jump translates into a very specific figure. The data comes to us from the last presentation of the firm’s financial results, specifically those of the first fiscal quarter of 2026. Roger Dassen, VP and CFO of ASML, pointed out that they plan to manufacture at least 60 standard EUV machines in 2026. That is 36% more than those sold in 2025. In other words: in an industry that is measured in gigantic investments, significantly increasing production means moving to dozens of machines, not hundreds or thousands. By 2027, the firm hopes to reach at least 80 units. TWINSCAN EXE:5000 Manufacturing more units is not as simple as expanding an assembly line. ASML’s most advanced lithography equipment has a size comparable to that of a medium bus and they are among the most complex devices ever created. They are huge systems, extremely precise and assembled for months in clean roomswith purified air to avoid any contamination. The reason is simple: in this process, a single dust particle can disrupt production. That’s why scaling doesn’t just depend on having more orders on the table. There is a part of this history that remains outside the ASML factories, but that weighs almost as much as its own production. Their customers also need to build clean rooms to install the machines they purchase, a task that requires specialized labor, electrical connections, technical expertise and abundant available power. It is a basic condition for these dozens of pieces of equipment to later translate into more real manufacturing capacity. In other words: the machine matters, but the place prepared to receive it and put it to work also matters. Then there’s everything that happens before one of those systems leaves the Dutch company. Their equipment is built with components from more than 5,000 suppliersso increasing the pace requires that entire network to move forward at once. If one of those links does not arrive, the whole may suffer. And talent adds another difficulty: in the south of the Netherlands, many technical profiles are already in the company or in your supply chain. That’s why Veldhoven’s signature searches for candidates at Dutch and foreign universitieswithout weakening the partners you need to grow. That is the reverse of a figure that, in isolation, may seem small. Sixty machines don’t sound like much in an industry that talks about gigantic models, data centers and huge budgets. But what we have seen is that each of these units is part of a physical, technical and human chain that is much more difficult to accelerate than it seems. This boom is precisely what has helped consolidate ASML as the European company with the highest stock market valueahead of names like LVMH either Hermes. AI is also at play here on the Old Continent. Images | ASML (1, 2) In Xataka | ASML has the most in-demand and advanced lithography machines in the world. And now also, his Lego set

Having a beer in the sun was the problem. The residual hops from manufacturing it are the solution

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When you slather on sunscreen, most conventional sun-blocking ingredients are synthetic. He problem is where the chemical UV filters that make sunscreens effective They are endocrine disruptors.can penetrate the skin and are toxic to coral reefs. So the industry has been looking for years for sustainable alternatives that provide that protection while minimizing the environmental impact. A research team from the University of São Paulo has found a natural alternative that also usually ends up in the trash: the remains of hops discarded after brewing beer. The discovery. It turns out that the hops used in beer production, a waste generated on a large scale, can serve to significantly improve sun protection. Through a process of maceration and percolation in ethanol, the bioactive compounds are extracted from discarded hops and incorporated into sunscreen formulations. When they mixed 10% of this extract with the usual UV filters, the resulting sunscreen multiplied its protection factor by more than three: it went from 53 to 178 in laboratory tests. Interestingly, those used hops performed better than unused hops, although the authors admit that the exact mechanism by which this occurs is still unclear. Why is it important. Approximately 85% of the bioactive compounds in hops remain intact in the material discarded after dry hopping (dry hopping), which turns this waste into a functional raw material that today is mostly thrown away or used as feed. Revaluing it as a cosmetic ingredient reduces the environmental impact of the brewing industry, opens a path towards more sustainable and potentially cheaper sunscreens, and fits directly with the principles of the circular economy. Context. Hops contain a family of compounds with proven properties on the skin: reduce inflammation, neutralize free radicals and even stop enzymes that degrade collagen. Especially relevant is xanthohumol, a polyphenol with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and metalloproteinase inhibitor properties in dermal fibroblasts. The key is how the hops are processed: when added cold after fermentation, without boiling, the xanthohumol is not thermally degraded and remains intact in the residue, which partly explains why reused material is more active than fresh hops. How they do it. The team left From the remains of hops from a craft brewery, he immersed them in ethyl alcohol to extract their compounds, dried the result and incorporated it at 10% into a standard sunscreen that already contained two conventional UV filters. They then measured how much ultraviolet radiation that cream blocked using international reference equipment, the same ones used by health authorities to certify sunscreens. Yes, but. As the research team itself recognizes, all the results are exclusively in vitro, since they used plates and not human skin. Likewise, there are no clinical trials that study whether the cream is stable over time or whether it can cause irritation. Furthermore, it is not clear why it works so well. As says the coordinator André Rolim Baby himself In the note from the FAPESP Agency, stability studies, standardization of assets and clinical evaluation of safety and efficacy will be necessary before any commercial application. On the other hand, the variability in the composition of reused hops (depending on the variety, the dry-hopping process or its origin) complicates standardization: for a filter to be approved by authorities such as the European Commission (EC Regulation 1223/2009) or the FDA in the United States, it is necessary that there be chemical consistency from batch to batch. In Xataka | We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture In Xataka | Spain can tell itself as many times as it wants that it hates Cruzcampo. The figures say a very different thing Cover | Onela Ymeri and Urban Gyllström

from manufacturing cars to 1,000 police robots that are, really, a seed of the future

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Today has been a completely different day from the others. Because frankly, the last thing I expected to see at a car show was a nearly three-hour presentation on a humanoid police robotbut here we are. The robot, however, is the least important thing, as we will see later. The clues that the robot would play a leading role were there, to be honest. After all, this same humanoid robot was on display at the Chery stand during the Beijing Motor Showbut of course, from seeing a robot displayed on a stand to understanding its purpose there is one step. Anyway, let’s go in parts. Just a few days ago, on April 17, Chery Group announced an agreement with AiMOGA Robotics to turn robotics into its new avenue for growth. The idea is simple: AiMOGA puts the expertise in robotics and Chery puts the manufacturing capacity, its experience with cars and the savoir faire in the international arena. The AiMOGA robot in the Chery showroom | Image: Xataka In April of last year, AiMOGA managed to ship the first 220 robots to more than 30 countries. These robots have their own name, by the way: Mornine M1. Today we have witnessed the signing of a commitment by different Chinese cities to deploy 1,000, which says a lot about how clear the government (which was present) is that there is a new field to dominate here. These robots are, let’s say, oriented to specific scenarios. Mornine is not a robot designed to make us a French omelet on a Tuesday night, but to control traffic, help with health care, etc. For now, at least. Detail of Mornine’s face | Image: Xataka The robot from behind | Image: Xataka If anyone is interested, they can buy their own Morine M1 robot at JD, the Chinese Amazon. Its price is 285,800 yuan, around 40,000 euros. If that seems like a lot of money to you, another option is his companion, the Argos robotic dog, which costs 15,800 yuan (around 2,000 euros at the exchange rate). Image | Xataka What is the robot like? It is a humanoid that is found at the most extreme point of the uncanny valley. The robot, feminine in appearance, is 1.67 cm tall, weighs 70 kilos, is capable of walking at one meter per second, pivoting 40 degrees and carrying up to 1.5 kilos of weight. It talks, sees (LiDAR, cameras and ultrasonic radar), moves its arms and has a goal: work. Mornine, as I said, has been developed with specific scenarios in mind. The most obvious is that of assistant and we have the clearest proof of it in the train stations and shopping centers of Wuhu, where it is already officially present. Today Chery has gone a step further, signing a commitment with several Chinese cities to deploy 1,000 robots on the roads. Robots dressed as police | Image: Xataka Because yes, Mornine is going to work as a traffic officer. As explained by Chery, Mornine will be able to detect violations, apply and explain the lawmanage vehicle flows, interact with drivers, etc. In fact, in a presentation they have suggested that it could be integrated with government systems to, for example, record violations as soon as they are detected. On paper and in the sample videos it sounds great, but honestly, I would like to see this robot in the middle of one of the main arteries of Beijing talking and interacting with the helmetless motorcyclists, the drivers who cross paths and the general chaos that prevails on Chinese roads. Beyond warning, the robot has no punitive capacity (or does not seem to have it), so it will be necessary to see if its practical application goes beyond the anecdotal. Ah, the irony | Image: Xataka In any case, there is something poetic about seeing human police officers stand next to these robots, which are dressed alike and mounted on a mobile base. Chery maintains that they seek to offer an alternative to professions for which there are no candidates, such as the aforementioned traffic agents, but what I see is different. It’s a robot taking a first step that, in 20 or 30 years, we will remember as the germ of something bigger. Because in this robot, whose movements are orthopedic and depend on a human operator to control them, I see something else. I see a China preparing for the future. I see a country that already anticipated the electric car and is now doing so with robotics. It also plays, yes | Image: Xataka A country with 5,000 years of history has all the patience in the world. Domestic robots will not reach society today, tomorrow or the next day. They probably won’t do it in this decade, but they will. Sooner or later, and being aware that this is a very techno-optimistic thought, domestic robotics will be a reality, and when it is, While the rest of the world takes its first steps, China will already know how to run. Literally. Xpeng is another local brand that has made its first steps in robotics, like Unitree or AgiBot. Tesla, with his Optimus, too. In fact, Chery has put Elon Musk and his goals with Optimus as an example to follow and beat. Hyundai, Honda have robotics projects. But China has something that the others don’t: total and absolute control of the supply chain. China is winning the electric car racethat is no secret, and it is sowing the seeds of victory for robotics. Today they are crude, somewhat clumsy designs, but a country that was able to invest 2,000 years and several dynasties in building a wall is in no hurry. They have all the time in the world to improve their robots, and not only that, but they are fast at iterating. Image | Xataka They are very patient, but they also react in the moment. They are slow and fast at the same time. That is something that … Read more

35% of its chip manufacturing machines are already of Chinese origin

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Foreign lithography and wafer processing equipment manufacturers are selling less and less in China. In 2024, the country led by Xi Jinping represented 41% of ASML revenuebut in 2025 this figure dropped to 33%. And presumably in 2026 will contract up to 20%. Something very similar has happened to the American wafer processing machine manufacturer Applied Materials: its sales in China have gone from 37% of its total sales in 2024 to 30% in 2025. In addition, sales in China of the American companies Lam Research and KLA, and the Japanese Tokyo Electron, also have decreased during 2025 compared to those they obtained in 2024. This obvious trend is the consequence of two factors. On the one hand, US sanctions prevent US and allied manufacturers of lithography and wafer processing equipment from delivering their most sophisticated machines to their Chinese clients. The Dutch company ASML is most likely the most affected in this scenario. On the other hand, in response to pressure from the US, the Chinese Government is supporting the adoption of machines of Chinese origin in its integrated circuit factories. In fact, in 2025 the national tools represented 35% of the equipment in use in semiconductor plants, and Xi Jinping’s Government aims to reach 50% in new factories during 2026. Its purpose is clear: China’s chip industry needs to achieve technological independence as soon as possible in its fight with the United States. China has made great progress, but lithography remains its weakest point The resources that the Chinese Government is allocating to its designers and manufacturers of wafer processing equipment are bearing fruit. And they already compete face to face with foreign companies in the field of deposition, thermal processing, etching and cleaning of wafers. However, there are still no extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography machines of Chinese origin in Chinese IC factories. Presumably they will arrive before this decade endsbut this is for the moment China’s real Achilles heel. One of the Chinese companies worth keeping track of is Pulin Technology. This organization has opted, like Naura Technology, AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China) or Piotech Inc., to develop your own cutting-edge photolithography machines. And the achievements are coming little by little. In mid-2025 Pulin sent one of his clients your first cutting-edge equipment using nanoimprint lithography technology (known as NIL for its English name NanoImprint Lithography). In mid-2025, Pulin sent one of its clients its first cutting-edge equipment NIL technology is not new. The Japanese company Canon has its own commercial NIL solution for yearsand presumably its operating principles are essentially the same as those of the machine designed by Pulin. On paper, NIL photolithography equipment is an alternative to printing machines. extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) designed and manufactured by the Dutch company ASML, although no to the high aperture version of these teams. The latter are currently the most sophisticated and expensive that exist. Very broadly speaking, the production of silicon wafers in the latter requires very precisely transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask to the surface of the silicon wafer using ultraviolet light and extremely refined optical elements. NIL lithography, however, allows the pattern to be transferred to the wafer without the need for intervention in the process. an extremely complex optical system. This strategy is simpler and cheaper, but it also involves the execution of several sequential processes that make it slower than UVE and UVP lithography. Canon assures that its nanoimprint lithography equipment can be used to manufacture integrated circuits comparable to the 5nm chips that TSMC, Samsung or Intel produce with ASML’s UVE machines. And in the future, with the refinements that will arrive, they will be able to manufacture 2nm chips. In addition, a NIL equipment costs ten times less than an ASML EUV machine: 15 million dollars compared to the 150 million dollars that the Dutch company asks its clients for an EUV machine with numerical aperture 0.33. We still don’t know how much each Pulin NIL machine costs, but it is reasonable to predict that at most it will have a cost comparable to that of the Canon machine. Image | Naura Technology More information | Tom’s Hardware In Xataka | Japan wants to end the Netherlands’ leadership in lithography equipment. This is your plan to get it

Ford has been slow to adapt to the electric car, so it is going to start manufacturing batteries for… data centers

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Ford has decided to convert its electric vehicle battery manufacturing capacity into a large-scale energy storage business. The move has its own name: Ford Energy, a new division with $2 billion in investment planned for the next two years and the stated objective of supplying batteries to data centers, electricity companies and large industrial consumers. Because now. The starting point is not exactly ideal for the company. Ford’s electric division accumulated net losses of 11.1 billion dollars only in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Reuters. For this year, the company expects to continue losing between 4,000 and 4,500 million additional dollars in its electrical and software division. “I think the customer has already spoken,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors. With battery factories operating at low capacity and the electric vehicle market in the United States in free fall, especially after the elimination of the $7,500 aid last September, Ford has chosen not to dismantle that infrastructure, but to redirect it. What is Ford Energy and how it will work. The bet is articulated around the Glendale, Kentucky, plant, which will be converted to manufacture energy storage systems at network scale. According to counted Ford late last year, the facility will produce LFP (lithium ferrophosphate) cells and storage modules. The cell technology used is licensed by the Chinese firm CATL, with whom Ford already had agreements on its line of electric vehicles. The plan, according to the company itself, is to have initial operational capacity within 18 months and reach at least 20 GWh of annual production by the end of 2027. In parallel, the BlueOval Battery Park Michigan plant, in Marshall, will continue with its production of LFP cells for Ford’s upcoming midsize electric truck, but will also make lower amperage cells aimed at residential storage. Lisa Drake, the board of directors who heads Ford Energy, explained that the “predominant” business opportunity will be in commercial electric grid customers, with data centers as the second priority and the residential segment as the third leg. Drake also noted that when going out to market to explore demand, it became clear that the technology preferred by customers was precisely the containerized prismatic LFP system, something that Ford could easily manufacture thanks to its licenses. For his part, John Lawler, vice president of Ford, counted In the statement, Ford Energy’s core purpose is to “capture the growing demand for reliable energy storage that reinforces the stability and resilience of the electric grid for utilities and large consumers.” The market you want to conquer. The explosion of artificial intelligence electricity consumption in data centers is skyrocketing on a global scale. The International Energy Agency places the demand for these centers around 945 TWh by 2030approximately 3% of global electricity consumption, with a projected growth of 15% annually. In the United States alone, according to the Battery Council International, this consumption could double to between 400 and 600 TWh on the same date. In that scenario, large-scale energy storage becomes critical infrastructure and Ford, like many other converted manufacturersthey see a great business opportunity. Ford is late, but he is not alone. The problem is that Tesla has a decade of advantage. Its energy storage business deployed 46.7 GWh in 2025 alone, 48% more than the previous year according to TechCrunchand was also more profitable than its own electric car division, with gross margins close to 30% compared to 15% for the automobile. General Motors has also made a move: its joint venture with LG Energy Solution has just invested $70 million to convert its Tennessee plant, south of Nashville, into the production of batteries for storage. The transition, however, is neither easy nor cheap. Switching a factory from nickel chemistry, common in electric car batteries, to LFP can take up to 18 months and cost several hundred million dollars, according to share from Reuters. Added to this is technological dependence on China, which dominates the LFP supply chain, and 35% US tariffs on cathode and anode materials of Chinese origin. What this means in the long term. Just like they count From the middle, although the demand for energy storage in North America is expected to almost double in five years, going from 76 to 125 GWh, that is not enough to absorb the more than 275 GWh of productive capacity that the automobile industry has installed with electric in mind. Storage alleviates the problem, but does not completely solve it. Even so, this same reorientation is what many other car manufacturers have opted for in order to take advantage of their infrastructure and contain losses due to their electric cars, especially in the United States, which is where things are much weaker. Cover image | Hans and ford In Xataka | Australia has a straight highway of 150 kilometers. And to prevent you from falling asleep he has put hobbies on the posters

Apple is dying of success with the MacBook Neo. So much so that its manufacturing is in danger

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Apple has a problem with MacBook Neo: You are selling it too much. The first Mac with an iPhone processor is being an overwhelming success, and it hits the keys that mobilize the average user: it is cheap, it can be used for practically all uses and… it is a Mac. The problem? That this laptop has the Apple A18 Pro It is no coincidence, and that it is selling so much is a problem for the supply chain. Why the A18 Pro. Apple is not manufacturing new A18 Pro chips for its MacBook Neo, it is recycling processors from the original production. If we look at its technical details, the MacBook Neo incorporates a five-core GPU and not six. When processors are manufactured in batches, not all of them work perfectly. Some may have specific failures in one of the CPU or GPU cores. Instead of throwing them away, Apple deactivates that defective core and can sell a trimmed version of it. This allowed Apple to create a laptop whose processor was practically at zero costa pillar for the profitability of the product. The problem. The demand for the MacBook Neo is exceeding Apple’s expectationsand the stock of the A18 Pro is starting to come to an end. According to Tim Culpan, production of this device is divided equally between Quanta and Foxconn, with an initial plan to produce about six million units. As of today, suppliers are not clear about being able to produce more MacBook Neo with the stock of A18 Pro processors. The dilemma. The Apple A18 Pro is manufactured in TSMC’s N3E process, three-nanometer technology, a chip whose production capacity is practically exhausted. Among Apple’s options would be to pay a premium to order urgent batches from TSMC, something that would allow production to resume but would end the key to the Neo: manufacturing an economical product with a profit margin. The second plan involves reallocating the wafers that Apple uses for other devices to the production of the Neo, another solution that does not seem ideal. If we add to this the current storage and RAM costs, the production of the Neo becomes complicated. No solution in sight. If demand for the MacBook Neo remains above expectations, Apple will have a decision to make. Raise Neo prices? Eliminate the budget 256 GB option? Offer new colors to revitalize the product? Be that as it may, the Neo makes one thing clear: the strategy of selling MacBooks at the lowest possible price works. And even more so when we are at that point where a mobile processor is, literally, a PC processor. In Xataka | The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

prepares total blockade of chip manufacturing machines arriving in China

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The US has been exercising its control over advanced integrated circuit manufacturing equipment for five years now to prevent it from reaching China. It is the strategy with the one that has managed to slow downbut in no way slow down, the technological development of the country led by Xi Jinping. In 2021, it approved the first restrictions that prevented machines from extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) of ASML and other advanced equipment arrive in China. From that moment on, the US Government has continued to deploy new sanctions with the purpose of increasingly limiting the access of Chinese semiconductor manufacturers to lithography and wafer processing equipment that comes not only from the US, but also from the Netherlands, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. The US is exercising ownership of some of the patents that these machines use, and also their ability to influence the decisions made by their allies. However, the Administration led by Donald Trump still has room to tighten its siege on China. And presumably it will do so in the short term because several senators belonging to both parties (Democrats and Republicans) have proposed new legislation which seeks to impose an essentially total ban on exports of advanced chip manufacturing and wafer processing equipment to certain corporations in adversary nations. It is clear that China is in their sights. Objective: Prevent ASML’s UVP photolithography machines from reaching China State-of-the-art lithography equipment is extraordinarily complex and sophisticated. Currently, the most used by integrated circuit manufacturers to produce cutting-edge chips are deep ultraviolet (UVP) and extreme ultraviolet (UVE) machines. A priori, UVP machines are suitable for manufacturing semiconductors up to 10 nm. And with EUVs it is possible to go up to 2 nm. However, by refining the processes involved in transferring the pattern to the wafer and turning to multiple patterning It is possible to go beyond these integration technologies. The US is especially targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT This technique broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It may have an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity, but it works. SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturerhas resorted to multiple patterning for manufacture 7nm integrated circuits using ASML’s Twinscan NXT:2000i UVP lithography equipment. US export controls currently prevent the sale of UVP equipment to specific factories in China that may or may not appear on the US blacklist, but do not prohibit its sale to the companies that own these plants. This is precisely what the MATCH Law seeks to change (Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware) that US senators have proposed. In practice this proposal will, if successful (and it probably will), prevent ASML’s UVP machines and other advanced wafer processing equipment from reaching any facilities of major Chinese chipmakers. The US is targeting SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, YMTC and CXMT, and also their subsidiaries. He picks it up clearly. the published document by Senator Michael Baumgartner. In reality this proposal does not introduce new restrictions; what it does is change how shipping is allowed of advanced tools to prevent Chinese companies from continuing to develop sophisticated techniques, such as multiple patterningwith the purpose of producing cutting-edge chips. Be that as it may, in the medium term, China will need to have your own advanced lithography machines to be able to sustain its technological development. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Congressman Michael Baumgartner In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

Lace Lithography is Europe’s opportunity to surpass the US and Asia in chip manufacturing. From Barcelona

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Lace Lithography is not just another startup. And it is not because it is developing a new photolithography technique that seeks to break down all the barriers that limit the performance of ultraviolet light technology used by the machines manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. And they are used by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix or SMIC, among other semiconductor manufacturers. A priori, the most prudent thing to do when faced with news like this is to adopt a skeptical stance, but Lace’s work deserves to be taken very seriously. Otherwise it would not have the support of Microsoft nor would it have raised $40 million in financing. The founders of this company are the Norwegian physicist Bodil Holst and the Spanish physicist and engineer Adrià Salvador Palau. These two scientists created Lace Lithography in 2023, and although their headquarters reside in Bergen (Norway), an important part of their research and development team operates from Barcelona. Be that as it may, the most important thing is that the strategy that this company has devised to solve the lithography of the next generation of integrated circuits does not resemble nor to ASML technology nor to any other innovation we have heard of so far. The first prototypes are already ready and the test plant will be ready in 2029 The itinerary that Lace Lithography seeks to follow is very ambitious. Its first prototypes, according to Reutersare already prepared, and intends to develop a test tool and a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing pilot plant in 2029. In any case, in addition to their plans, we know some details about their technology that are worth investigating. In the integrated circuit manufacturing equipment that ASML designs and produces, ultraviolet light 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. Lace Lithography uses a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer The light used by high-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment, which is the most advanced machine that ASML has Currently, it belongs to the most energetic portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes from 10 to 100 nanometers (nm). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine. Lace’s technology solves this and other problems that are closely linked to the use of ultraviolet radiation to manufacture chips. And instead of using light, the engineers at this company use a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer. However, the most striking thing is that this beam has the width of a single hydrogen atom (around 0.1 nm), so on paper this solution will make it possible to produce semiconductors ten times smaller than the smallest ones that TSMC, Samsung or Intel are currently manufacturing. “Our technology opens a path that potentially has the ability to expand (chip makers’) agenda, as well as make things possible that otherwise would not have been viable,” Bodil Holst declared. John Petersen, scientific director of lithography at IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), the most experienced laboratory in developing new integration and nanotechnology technologies that we have in Europe, maintains that the main advantage of using the helium atom beam is that it allows creating much smaller transistors than the current ones. “They are almost unimaginable,” Petersen pointed out. It sounds really good. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters | Lace Lithography In Xataka | China needs to develop a new type of chips immune to US sanctions. And your scientists have just achieved it

NVIDIA has lost hope in China, which is why it has started manufacturing its own next-generation GPUs for AI

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NVIDIA faces this 2026 a crucial year. They have become one of the largest strategic investors in the AI ​​ecosystem with dozens of billion-dollar investments in other companies, models, infrastructure and robotics. But, in the end, they are a company that supplies chips and, so far, the H200 They set the tone. According to a report by Financial Timesthat’s over. NVIDIA just ordered TSMC to start mass manufacturing Vera Rubinits next-generation hardware for AI. The reason? They have lost all faith in China. In short. With the entire AI industry looking to the future, and NVIDIA that has its Vera Rubin on the starting grid, it was strange that the company continued to invest so much in keeping TSMC working on a chip as old as the H200. Although it has been around for a while, it has positioned itself as unbeatable in the industry due to its price/power ratio, so these are the chips on which it has been built. the AI ​​empire. However, time passes and NVIDIA needs to move. Data centers need more power, new models are more demanding and the spearhead of the software sector – such as OpenAI either Google– have demanded new solutions. According to two sources consulted by the financial media, and close to NVIDIA’s plans, the company has grown tired of “waiting in limbo” and has begun to accelerate the delivery and deployment of Vera Rubin. Yoncomparable. As it could not be otherwise, TSMC is going to be in charge. The Taiwanese foundry would have already been asked to begin diversifying the production line to begin manufacturing the new chips. And if you’re wondering why it’s not enough for Google or OpenAI to simply buy more H200, the answer is because the chips have nothing to do with it. H200 is a more classic GPU for a data center. It is the configuration that AI and computing companies on these servers have been working with for years. Vera Rubin, however, is a paradigm shift made up of new CPUs, new GPUs and designed so that everything works as a single rack-scale accelerator. It has not only more power, but also the latest software and hardware additions from NVIDIA and something very important: incredible bandwidth. The higher the bandwidth on such a system, the more simultaneous data it can handle. This implies greater efficiency when training, but also a lower cost in inference. It is not an update, it is a platform change designed for models with trillions of parameters. Qgoose faith in China. To put it more simply, if the H200 is like a “super powerful graphics card”, Vera Rubin is like a mini data center in itself. And if you’re wondering why they didn’t start production sooner, the reason is… China. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has been ‘fighting’ with Washington for months to open their arms in the trade and technology war maintained by the US and China. Trump ended up agreeing and Huang commented earlier this year that they had returned to “turn on” all production lines to supply the very high Chinese demand. The problem is that that demand did not arrive. At least, It was not as high as Huang expected. In the presentation of results, NVIDIA’s financial director commented a few days ago that “although small quantities of H200 for Chinese customers were approved by the US government, we have not yet generated any income. And we do not know if imports to China will be allowed.” We already told the problem: The US was leaving for NVIDIA to sell its graphics, butThe Chinese government did not seem so convinced. Your main Big Tech They were demanding NVIDIA solutionsarguing that they need them to keep up with what their American rivals are doing, but the ball was in the court of the Government and Customs. China is promoting AI that is different from that of the US, more focused on low costs and rapid acceptance by the client, and at the same time want to build your own hardware network with companies like SMIC or a Huawei that you already have your supercomputer for AI. complicated swerve. From the Financial Times they point out that the president of China, Xi Jinping, and the president of the United States will meet at the end of March to discuss export controls. The problem is that, according to their sources, even if the barrier is lifted completely and not just for certain companies and China can buy H200s en masse, turning TSMC’s ship around so that it starts producing H200s again would be complicated. It is not as simple as pressing a button and going from producing one thing to another. If this situation occurs, “NVIDIA would take up to three months to reallocate or add capacity to the supply chain to produce H200.” One of Vera Rubin’s PCBs Rebound winner. What is clear here is that NVIDIA is not going to lose from the operation. Huang already argued that the United States could not miss the opportunity to take a slice of a multi-billion dollar market (because the US let the cards be sold… with a 25% tariff), but whether it is the Chinese or the Western industry, it is from NVIDIA that they continue to buy the H200 and, ‘shortly’, the Vera Rubin. And the rebound winner in this operation is Samsung. Of the three companies that manufacture memory (and that have catapulted the RAM and SSD crisis we are in), Samsung is the one that has completed its new generation HBM4 memory. It is the one that has passed the high standards of NVIDIA and the one that is already being mass manufactured to be able to integrate into Vera Rubin systems. Everyone attentive. As we said, NVIDIA has to the entire industry at his feet. Google, xAI and Meta are working on their own chips, but together with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI, Mistral and Anthropic they are some of the companies that they … Read more

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