First of all, it raises the question: What countries in the world can manufacture lithography machines?
The answer may surprise some people, only China, Japan, the Netherlands can manufacture lithography machines in the world, Japan's representative companies are Nikon, Canon, once the lithography machine "king", and later by the Dutch ASML after the collapse, and China can also manufacture lithography machines, but can not reach the top lithography machine fine.
At present, the Netherlands ASML a company almost monopolized the global high-end lithography machine market, mainly EUV lithography machine, the cost is extremely high, for the time being there is no competitor can match it, every year stable supply to large customers.
On May 20, asML in the Netherlands launched a new EUV lithography machine, which will be manufactured in 2023 and mass production as early as 2025, and the price of each lithography machine will reach 400 million US dollars, equivalent to 2.67 billion yuan, which can be said to be the most expensive machinery and equipment in the world.
ASML's top management said that this is a new generation of high-value aperture EUV lithography machine, which is expected to be manufactured in the first half of next year, and the price of each EUV lithography machine in the past was $200 million, and now the price of the new generation of products has reached $400 million, with higher cost and stronger technical strength.
The price of a lithography machine is so expensive, who would spend a huge amount of money to buy it? In fact, it is not a question of whether to buy, but a question of whether to buy or not, ASML's lithography machine orders have long been full.
Especially EUV lithography machine, belongs to the world's top lithography machine equipment, an EUV lithography machine parts need to be purchased from all over the world, most of which are from the United States, some parts from Germany, Japan and other countries, the lack of core components is impossible to manufacture.
So, ASML companies are also very dependent on the equipment of these overseas suppliers, so can ASML be considered an assembly plant? In fact, the assembly of the lithography machine is very difficult, otherwise the United States itself can manufacture, why import the lithography machine from the Netherlands?
For the engine, gearbox and chassis used by a car company BMW, whether the car company can adjust these equipment to the same as BMW, it is very difficult, this requires the accumulation of technology, not overnight. Moreover, the assembly and debugging of the lithography machine is much more difficult than that of the car, and it is not at one level at all.
You know, an EUV lithography machine as many as 100,000 spare parts, global suppliers up to more than 5,000, to assemble 100,000 parts into a machine, not the slightest mistake, which in itself requires extremely high technical strength, ASML annual research and development costs of up to billions of euros.
Therefore, the lithography machine manufactured by asML in the Netherlands concentrates the top technology crystallization in various fields of human beings, and ASML combines these technology crystals into a machine that can produce the most advanced chips.
Every year, the huge investment in research and development, once made ASML miserable, ASML's smartest point is through capital means and large customers bundled, TSMC, Samsung Electronics and Intel are ASML's big customers, and finally cooperate with ASML, these large customers spend a lot of money into ASML, to provide research and development cost support for ASML, and ASML can take the lead in shipping to large customers.
It is precisely like this, ASML has overthrown Japan's Nikon, Canon, and large customers are deeply bundled with ASML, will they buy Japanese lithography machines? Both technology and the market have lost to ASML. As ASML's stock price rises all the way, these large customers make a lot of money by holding ASML, and they can get the lithography machine as early as possible, killing two birds with one stone.
With excellent technical performance, ASML company also earned hemp! According to the latest financial report, ASML's revenue in 2021 was 18.6 billion euros, equivalent to 133.9 billion yuan, of which EUV lithography machine revenue accounted for 33.8%, DUV lithography machine accounted for most of the revenue.
Therefore, ASML's EUV lithography machines have been sold to TSMC, Samsung and Intel, it is foreseeable that the new generation of lithography machines priced at $400 million will also be the first to supply large customers, and ASML's DUV lithography machines are mostly sold to the mainland, in the latest financial report, the mainland has become ASML's largest customer, after all, the number of DUV lithography machines is large, which plays an important role in the growth of the company's revenue and profits.