A prototype has been built in China of a so-called EUV machine, the complex technology with which ASML in Veldhoven also makes the most modern computer chips. According to the Reuters news agency, the device was developed by former employees of ASML and is part of a secret state project that aims to break Western dominance in chip technology.
The machine, which fills almost an entire factory hall, is said to have been completed early this year in a laboratory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The device works, but it has not yet produced functioning chips. China aims to achieve this by 2028, although insiders consider 2030 more realistic.
Former ASML employees cooperated
The prototype is said to have been partly built by Chinese engineers who previously worked at ASML. They are said to have ‘reconstructed’ the technology based on knowledge they acquired at the Veldhoven company. ASML confirms opposite Reuters that it has seen former employees leave for China, but emphasizes that all staff are bound by strict confidentiality contracts.
ASML is the only company worldwide that can supply fully functioning EUV machines. The systems, which cost more than 250 million euros each, are indispensable for the production of the smallest and most powerful chips. These are used in artificial intelligence, smartphones and military applications, among other things.
Arms race for chips
The United States has been putting pressure on the Netherlands since 2018 to ban ASML from selling these machines to China. So far that has not happened. Through the export restrictions, Washington is trying to prevent China from becoming technologically equal to the West.
With this Chinese prototype, that gap seems to be narrowing slightly. Analysts speak of ‘a symbolic, but not yet practical breakthrough’. According to experts, the optical precision and reliability of ASML’s machines remain unattainable for China for the time being.
‘Manhattan project’
According to Reuters’ sources, the secret EUV program is directly linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The operation would be coordinated by telecom giant Huawei and employ more than a thousand engineers.
Within China, the project is compared to the American ‘Manhattan project’, which developed the atomic bomb during the Second World War.