The US has accused the one company on Earth that makes the machines behind cutting-edge chips of letting one slip into China. It has not shown its proof, and the company says it never happened.
In a series of recent meetings, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told ASML’s senior leaders that Washington believes one of its top-of-the-line lithography machines may have made its way into China, in violation of US-led export restrictions. ASML, the Dutch firm that holds a near-total monopoly on the technology, denies it.
What the US is claiming
According to Bloomberg, Lutnick’s team believes it has evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment to China, but has repeatedly declined to show it.
Extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, machines are the bottleneck for producing the most advanced semiconductors, and ASML is the only company that makes them. They have been off-limits to China since around 2019, and the dispute is the latest twist in a chip war that has repeatedly entangled the Dutch company.
