Dutch tech giant ASML, which leads the world in production of lithography machines that create computer chips, says it its annual report that it notified US and Dutch authorities about a former employee in China who allegedly stole information about its technology, according to a Financial Times report, which added that ASML “holds a unique and crucial position in the chip supply chain as the only company able to make highly sophisticated extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines”.
ASML has been forced to restrict certain technology to China, after a major lobbying campaign by the US on the Dutch government (as well as Japan), but the chip toolmaker does not expect the moves to hurt its business this year, largely because it has an order backlog of more than 40 billion euros and expects its sales to jump by 25% this year, but the report noted that while ASML has a monopoly on the advanced machines needed to make chips, Huawei reportedly filed a patent application in December last year “for one of the most advanced facets of an EUV machine”.
Read the full report: The FT.
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Infographic: ASML in the Centre of the US-China Chip War
