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How the Maker of the 'Most Complex Machine Humans Ever Created' Is Navigating Trade Fights
How the Maker of the ‘Most Complex Machine Humans Ever Created’ Is Navigating Trade Fights
ASML’s high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet cleanroom. The company makes complex lithography machines that are used to manufacture cutting-edge chips. via ASML
ASML, the Dutch company that makes multimillion-dollar tools to manufacture advanced semiconductors, is grappling with the repercussions of a tech trade war.
By Adam Satariano
Reporting from Veldhoven, the Netherlands
June 5, 2025
Seemingly every week, Christophe Fouquet, the chief executive of the Dutch technology company ASML, has found himself grappling with political firestorms.
Last month, President Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on European goods sold to the United States, potentially raising some costs for ASML’s lithography machines, which are critical for producing advanced microchips. Two days later, he paused the tariffs.
Around the same time, the foreign minister of the Netherlands was in Beijing, partly to discuss lifting the rules that bar Chinese companies from buying ASML’s equipment. Then this week, the Dutch government collapsed, throwing any trade talks into question.
All of these events had the potential to disrupt ASML, which is the only maker of complex lithography machines that can cost as much as $400 million and be as big as a train car. The tools are so coveted by nations such as China and the United States for making cutting-edge chips that ASML has been turned into a geopolitical chess piece in trade battles, with some of its products restricted for export to certain countries.
{snip}
A lithography machine in the research lab at ASML’s headquarters. Kevin Faingnaert for The New York Times
{snip}
Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent for The Times, based in London.
ASML’s high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet cleanroom. The company makes complex lithography machines that are used to manufacture cutting-edge chips. via ASML
ASML, the Dutch company that makes multimillion-dollar tools to manufacture advanced semiconductors, is grappling with the repercussions of a tech trade war.
By Adam Satariano
Reporting from Veldhoven, the Netherlands
June 5, 2025
Seemingly every week, Christophe Fouquet, the chief executive of the Dutch technology company ASML, has found himself grappling with political firestorms.
Last month, President Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on European goods sold to the United States, potentially raising some costs for ASML’s lithography machines, which are critical for producing advanced microchips. Two days later, he paused the tariffs.
Around the same time, the foreign minister of the Netherlands was in Beijing, partly to discuss lifting the rules that bar Chinese companies from buying ASML’s equipment. Then this week, the Dutch government collapsed, throwing any trade talks into question.
All of these events had the potential to disrupt ASML, which is the only maker of complex lithography machines that can cost as much as $400 million and be as big as a train car. The tools are so coveted by nations such as China and the United States for making cutting-edge chips that ASML has been turned into a geopolitical chess piece in trade battles, with some of its products restricted for export to certain countries.
{snip}
A lithography machine in the research lab at ASML’s headquarters. Kevin Faingnaert for The New York Times
{snip}
Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent for The Times, based in London.