Spokespeople for ASML, TSMC and the Dutch trade ministry declined to comment. Spokespeople for the White House National Security Council, US Department of Defense and US Department of Commerce didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
About the size of a city bus, an EUV requires regular servicing and updates. As part of that, the company can remotely force a shut-off that would act as a kill switch, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Veldhoven-based company is the world’s only manufacturer of these machines, which sell for more than €200 million (US$217 million) apiece.
ASML’s technology has long been subject to government interventions aimed at preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. The Netherlands prohibits the company from selling EUV machines to China, for instance, because of US fears they could lend its rival an edge in the global chip war.
It was at the behest of the US that the Dutch began this year to halt exports of ASML’s next-most sophisticated chip-making machines. Even before that ban took effect, US officials had asked ASML to cancel some previously scheduled shipments to Chinese customers, Bloomberg News reported.
The company expects as much as 15 per cent of this year’s sales to China will be affected by the latest export-control measures.
Beijing has made technological self-sufficiency a national priority and Huawei’s efforts to advance domestic chip design and manufacture have received government backing.
China has long claimed that the island of Taiwan is its territory, with President Xi Jinping both advocating for unification and refusing to rule out a military intervention. The superpower has been building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II and a top US admiral testified in March that it’s readying to be able to invade Taiwan by 2027.
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US proposes new round of tariffs on China in latest trade war escalation
US proposes new round of tariffs on China in latest trade war escalation
The US Congress last month approved US$8 billion in aid to enhance the island’s defences. The Biden administration is also looking to boost semiconductor production on American soil, promising US$39 billion in grants to chip makers to hedge against any future supply-chain disruption.
The stakes are high, with around 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced chips made in Taiwan. On May 20, Taiwan inaugurated Lai Ching-te as president in the global chip hub, putting in power a man Beijing has branded an “instigator of war”.
ASML has shipped more than 200 of these machines to clients outside China since they were first developed in 2016, with TSMC snatching up more of them than any other chip maker.
EUVs require such frequent upkeep that without ASML’s spare parts they quickly stop working, the people said. On-site maintenance of the EUVs poses a challenge because they’re housed in clean rooms that require engineers to wear special suits to avoid contamination.
ASML offers certain customers joint service contracts where they do some of the routine maintenance themselves, allowing clients like TSMC to access their own machines’ system. ASML says it cannot access its customers’ proprietary data.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu hinted in a September interview with CNN that any invader of Taiwan would find his company’s chip-making machines out of order.
“Nobody can control TSMC by force,” Liu said. “If there is a military invasion you will render TSMC factory non-operable.”