2.9 billion! The lithography machine flown from the Netherlands to the United States has torn the "fig leaf" of American semiconductors!
Chips, such inconspicuous small silicon wafers, have long become the "lifeblood" of modern society in today's era of rapid technological development. However, under the haze of this global chip shortage, a flight carrying up to $2.9 billion worth of advanced lithography equipment sailed from the Netherlands to the United States, igniting a glimmer of light.
Background: The global chip shortage and the United States are lagging behind
In the past few years, due to multiple factors such as shocks and geopolitical disputes, the global semiconductor supply chain has fallen into a huge crisis. The ubiquitous chip shortage has brought many industries, including automobiles, electronics, and medical devices, to a halt, and the economy has been hit hard. At the same time, this "chip war" has also exposed the lagging situation of the US semiconductor industry. For a long time, the production capacity of advanced process chips in the United States has been far behind that of leading Asian companies such as TSMC and Samsung, with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 20% in local semiconductors and a degree of dependence on foreign countries of more than 80%. This not only greatly reduces the United States' voice in the field of science and technology, but is also a serious strategic weakness that endangers national security.
The core 2.9 billion lithography machine is airlifted to the United States
Against this backdrop, a huge $2.9 billion purchase was the tipping point. Through an agreement with Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML, the U.S. government has invested heavily in the introduction of several EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) lithography machines, which are currently the most advanced key equipment in chip manufacturing. As the world's only manufacturer of EUV lithography machines, ASML has long dominated the technological direction of the semiconductor industry. The arrival of the lithography machine in the United States is undoubtedly a major milestone.
There were many obstacles to be overcome in order to close this deal. On the one hand, the United States has been repeatedly rejected by the Dutch government's strict restrictions on export controls for EUV lithography machines. Until recently, on the basis of playing with the interests of its allies, the Netherlands finally agreed to "give the green light". On the other hand, as the world's most advanced manufacturing equipment, the lithography machine itself is extremely large, delicate and fragile, and transportation alone is a huge challenge. To ensure that nothing goes wrong, the United States
The sky-high price of $2.9 billion not only highlights the core position of lithography equipment in semiconductor manufacturing, but also reflects the current backwardness of the United States in this field. For a long time, the Dutch company ASML has controlled the key technology patents of lithography machines and led the development process of the global semiconductor industry. However, due to the long-term blockade of various technologies in the United States, the local chip manufacturing capacity seriously lags behind the international level.
Since 2018, the global chip shortage crisis has been intensifying, and the technology industry in the United States has borne the brunt, and the supply chain shortage has led to the stagnation of production in many fields. The automobile industry has been forced to stop production repeatedly due to the shortage of cores, the shipment of household appliances and electronic products has plummeted, and even the production of weapons and equipment in the military industry has also been affected to a certain extent. Analysts pointed out that if this shortcoming cannot be made up in time, the United States will slowly stop in strategic emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and 5G communications, and will be left far behind by other countries.
Under the crisis, the U.S. government had to restart the road to revival of the semiconductor industry. Since 2020, the U.S. federal government has allocated huge amounts of money to encourage well-known technology companies to expand new wafer fab lines in their homes and revitalize semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. However, a key bottleneck is the lack of immediate access to the lithography machine, which is the core equipment for manufacturing advanced chips.
As the "ancestral chongzhi" equipment for chip manufacturing, the lithography machine is regarded as the "great health care" of the semiconductor industry. The smaller the process of high-end chips, the higher the requirements for the lithography machine. At present, only two companies, ASML in the Netherlands and Nikon in Japan, are able to produce state-of-the-art lithography equipment to manufacture 5nm or even 3nm chips. The United States has never mastered this core technology and has always relied on imports from overseas.
Based on this situation, the U.S. government urgently needs to break through the blockade of lithography machine technology and fundamentally promote the recovery of the local semiconductor industry. This huge investment of 2.9 billion dollars is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, and the United States may continue to invest heavily in top-notch lithography equipment in the future.