ASML

Themes.

Chips: link here. Chips, semiconductor: link here.

ASML lithography, link here. 

• Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography processes carve electric circuits into semiconductor wafers with processes of > 7 nm. 
• Newer Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology achieves even smaller processes of 2 nm and beyond. This advance, which allows more electric circuits to be squeezed onto a chip, is vital to sustaining Moore’s Law. 
• Next-generation High Numerical Aperture (High-NA EUV) lithography systems are currently in development. They are anticipated to enable even higher-resolution patterning, which should validate Moore’s Law in the foreseeable future.

Updates

July 19, 2023: major update here.

July 19, 2023: Barron's, link here:

July 19, 2023: superb second quarter.

• profit jumps;
• handily beats on both upper and lower lines;
• ups guidance

Original Post

ASML, CNBC, December 4, 2022: 

From the linked article:

ASML, headquartered in the town of Veldhoven, does not make chips.

Instead, it makes and sells $200 million extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to semiconductor manufacturers like Taiwan’s TSMC.

These machines are required to make the most advanced chips in the world, and ASML has a de-facto monopoly on them, because it’s the only company in the world to make them. This makes ASML one of the most important chip companies in the world.

And more:

ASML has not been able to ship an EUV machine to China since 2019 due to various Dutch export restrictions, according to a company spokesperson.

But they said that ASML expects “the direct impact of the new export control measures on ASML’s overall 2023 shipment plan to be limited.”

There are currently no EUV systems in China. The U.S. is worried that if ASML ships the machines to China, chipmakers in the country could begin to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors in the world, which have extensive military and advanced artificial intelligence applications.

Peter Zeihan weighs in.