US Warns ASML Over 1 EUV Chip Tool That May Have Reached China
Updated
Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 19
US Warns ASML Over 1 EUV Chip Tool That May Have Reached China
3 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 19
Summary
Recent meetings between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and ASML executives centered on US concerns that one of the Dutch company’s most advanced EUV lithography machines may have ended up in China.
The worry is that such a transfer would breach US-led export controls, which have barred ASML from shipping EUV systems to China since restrictions imposed during the first Trump administration.
EUV tools are among the semiconductor industry’s most critical machines, used by manufacturers such as TSMC to make advanced chips for companies including Nvidia and Apple.
The episode presents a fresh test for ASML under the Trump administration, which is pressing the company over possible leakage of technology central to cutting-edge chip production.
With China mastering older tech and the US eyeing new bans, is ASML trapped between superpowers?
Can Huawei's new chip architecture make US sanctions on advanced EUV machines obsolete?
As US sanctions fuel China's domestic industry, who is winning the global tech war?
US Export Controls and the MATCH Act: How ASML and China Are Shaping the Future of Semiconductor Supply Chains
Overview
The United States has intensified efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking technology, introducing new proposals in April 2026 that directly impact Dutch company ASML, which holds a near-monopoly on advanced lithography equipment. These actions, including the proposed MATCH Act, mark a significant escalation by targeting not just high-performance chips but the essential tools needed to make them. As a result, ASML’s shares declined, highlighting the vulnerability of its business with China. If enacted, these measures would directly limit China’s ability to obtain critical machinery, threatening its semiconductor manufacturing capacity and deepening the global technology divide.