ASML, Europe’s Most Valuable Tech Firm, Is at the Heart of the US-China Chip War
The low-profile firm has become crucial to a half-trillion-dollar global industry.
US President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor before signing an executive order at the White House in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2021.
Photographer: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg
In 1984, Martin van den Brink, a young Dutch engineer, joined a newly created venture in a quiet corner of the Netherlands. Little did he know then that about 40 years on the company would be so crucial to the $580 billion semiconductor industry that it would be the epicenter of a US-China chip war.
ASML Holding NV, where Van den Brink is now the chief technology officer, practically owns the market for a critical piece of equipment needed to produce the brains of everything that makes modern life possible — from cars and smartphones to computers, microwaves and airplanes. With the company’s high-end machines churning out chips that can also go into state-of-the-art weapons and artificial intelligence devices, ASML is effectively being treated as critical infrastructure for US national security and has become a target of industrial espionage for China.