US Suspects an ASML EUV Machine Reached China. ASML Says That's Impossible.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick personally raised concerns with ASML’s senior leadership that one of the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines may have made its way into China, in violation of US-led export controls. ASML denies it. The dispute has no public resolution and ASML shares fell 2.6% on the news.
EUV machines use 13.5nm light to print the smallest transistor patterns in existence. Without them, chipmakers cannot produce the advanced processors that run AI training and inference at scale. ASML is the sole manufacturer in the world. A single EUV system costs approximately $250M today; the newer High-NA EUV variant runs close to $400M.
There are 314 EUV machines operating globally. Twenty-six have been decommissioned. According to Bloomberg, none are in China.
What Washington Says
US officials told Reuters they have evidence that ASML shipped to China specialty equipment used to transport EUV machines, along with other components compatible with EUV systems. The proof, they said, is too sensitive to disclose publicly.
Reuters had previously reported on a Shenzhen prototype built using former ASML engineers — a machine that can generate EUV light but is not a functioning production tool. Building EUV light is a known challenge; running a fab-grade system at nanometer precision across optics, masks, stages, wafers, cooling, and defect control is an entirely different problem. No independent analysis has confirmed China has an operational EUV fab capability.
ASML’s Position
ASML rejects the claim. The company’s tracking records show no EUV shipment to China ever cleared its books. China is formally blocked from receiving EUV equipment under Dutch export rules, which the Netherlands extended under US pressure over the past several years. The Biden administration previously grew frustrated when ASML increased shipments of advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) tools before imminent bans took effect, but EUV was never in that window.
ASML’s China revenue runs at approximately 20% of its 2026 total. The exposure is entirely in DUV tools and service contracts, not EUV.
Stakes
If any EUV tool reached China, the consequences extend beyond ASML. Huawei has publicly acknowledged it is building AI chips without EUV access — its chip head cited that constraint directly. An operational EUV capability at a Chinese foundry would remove the primary hardware bottleneck on Chinese AI chip production at advanced process nodes.
The Trump administration cannot simply ban ASML: the company is the critical supplier for TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and every US-aligned chipmaker that matters. Enforcement would realistically take the form of Dutch investigations, US-imposed fines, tighter license requirements, and pressure to terminate ASML’s service and parts access for existing DUV customers in China — moves that could knock out that 20% revenue slice.
Washington also still has unused leverage. ASML’s Chinese customer SwaySure Technology Co has been on the US entity list since 2024, but the Trump team has not forced ASML to fully cut ties.
The investigation is ongoing. No charges or formal findings have been issued.