Asmac showed its cards and changed its mind about wanting to work with China! What's going on here?

On March 28, Asmac's CEO publicly stated that it was not Asmac's decision not to sell lithography to China.

In the field of photolithography, Asmac is a deserved first brother, the order to whom not to give, not its decision, who else can be decided?

This big brother standing at the top of the industry chain, in front of the United States is also a little brother.

Why should a Dutch company listen to the US?

In the 1980s, in the lithography market, Japan's Nikon was a dominant player. At that time, Asmac's market share was less than 10%. But whether it is Nikon or Asmax, lithography light source wavelength is stuck at 193nm, Asmax smashed billions of dollars did not break through.

So why did it come back and take a whopping 89% of the global market share?

Because of the technology dividend, but it wasn't on its own, it had to do with the US.

What's going on here?

At the time, the chip maker, Intel, had its own photolithography division, and in 1997, recognizing the difficulty of crossing the 193nm wavelength, Intel persuaded the US proper to bring together hundreds of top scientists to form an "Extreme ultraviolet" alliance, but also brought together the three major U.S. national laboratories, only six years, the 193nm breakthrough shortened to 135nm. who can first get this technology, who will be able to completely occupy the lithography market. And Asmay is a in order to get the market, can be reckless ruthless role, in the United States promised a whole lot of promises, and finally got the technology, completely sealed God.

And what was promised to the US?

One is willing to set up factories and R&D centers in the United States, the second is to ensure that 55% of the core components and raw materials, sourced from U.S. suppliers, and the third is to accept the U.S. regular review. In other words, there is simply no way for Asmac to independently produce a lithography machine on its own. In addition, although Asmax has applied for as many as 14,444 patents, many of the patents are not in their own hands,

But that's not the end of the story; lithography requires a huge investment of capital, and a steady stream of money to transfuse it. And by diluting its own equity in order to get the R&D money, Asmax brought in big investments from US firms like Intel, and lost some of its control of the company.

That's why Asmay says it doesn't have the power to decide who its customers are, and now the so-called advantages that it has built up over two decades are nowhere to be found.

Although the localization of our photolithography machines still needs to break through and improve on the technology, at least the components and services we need can be done independently by ourselves. Core technology is important, but more important is the independent and autonomous technology.