ASML and EUV lithography: a warning about Europe's ambitions

The line went around European tech newsrooms. Frank Heemskerk, head of public affairs at the Dutch lithography machine maker ASML, summed up the situation in one sentence: "We simply sell nothing in Europe." heise online reported the remark and t3n picked it up. It points to a missed opportunity for European sovereignty in chip manufacturing.

A position no one else holds

ASML is the only manufacturer that can mass-produce EUV lithography machines. The tools are indispensable for the finest etching, below 5 nanometers. The company has become a fixed point in the chip war between the United States and China. Its machines are in strong demand in the United States and in China alike, but American sanctions bar their export to the Chinese market. Washington has even accused ASML of letting a very modern EUV machine reach China.

Building this equipment depends on a chain of specialized suppliers, from ultra-high-purity optics to high-power lasers. Decades of accumulated expertise went into that combination, and it is what makes the tool so hard to reproduce. Few players means little redundancy, and little redundancy means strategic vulnerability.

Red carpets elsewhere

Asked about how attractive the regions are, the executive points to active competition from the United States and Asia for investment and production sites. He notes that ASML's production stays concentrated in the Netherlands, and that the share of research done in the United States is under discussion. Europe has to make its territory attractive if it wants to keep a cutting-edge industry.

In Italy, the question is framed as risk. The geopolitical risk facing European semiconductors is no longer cyclical but structural, sector analysts say, and they point to dependence on a handful of suppliers and a handful of maritime routes.

A machine unique in the world, sold everywhere except on its home continent: the summary of an industrial policy that has to be rebuilt.

Next-generation lithography therefore stays at the center of public policy. European programs that support chip production aim precisely at closing this gap, but the industrial effects are counted in years.