China's $150 Billion Chip Push Has Hit a Dutch Snag
Europe’s largest tech company supplies the machines that can make next-generation semiconductors. But it’s isn’t selling these to China.
In need of machines?
Photographer: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFPThere are few better bellwethers for the success of U.S. efforts to curb China’s technological expansion than ASML Holding N.V., the $191 billion manufacturer of chipmaking equipment.
ASML, Europe’s largest technology company, is the world’s only supplier of machines that can make the next generation of cutting-edge semiconductors. But the Dutch company isn’t allowed to sell them to China. Its latest set of earnings suggest that, for all of China’s spending to boost domestic chipmaking, the industry’s traditional heartlands — Taiwan, South Korea and the U.S. — are the ones getting further ahead.