Preface
As long as it is to manufacture chips, it is inseparable from lithography machines, and ASML in the Netherlands has also made a lot of money because of its lithography machines in the past few years.
However, some time ago, Samsung, Intel, and TSMC, as the three major shareholders of ASML, sold their shares one after another.
So, what's going on? Is ASML not fragrant?
ASML
On May 31, 2022, according to the official website of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the CEO of the Netherlands ASML jointly announced a 200 million investment to expand the factory in the United States.
Then, on June 6, ASML announced that it would continue to expand its China team in order to be able to support the growth of its business in China.
Speaking of ASML, many people may have heard of the company's name, because a few years ago, during the Sino-US technology war, ASML became even more famous in the mainland.
As a giant of lithography machines, who would have thought that ASML was once just a small software company.
However, with the development of technology in lithography machines, ASML has become a giant of lithography machines.
THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE WORLD'S SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURERS, SUCH AS INTEL, SAMSUNG, TSMC AND SMIC, BASICALLY PURCHASE TWINSCAN MODELS FROM ASML.
In addition to working on the TWINSCAN model, ASML is also working with other semiconductor companies to develop next-generation lithography technology.
Now in the world, there are only three lithography machine manufacturers that can provide mass production and commercial use, namely ASML, Nikon and Canon.
According to 2007 statistics, ASML's market share in the mid-to-high-end lithography machine market is about 60%.
In the high-end lithography machine market, ASML has a market share of about 80%.
Therefore, ASML's lithography machine can be said to be "value for money", coupled with the fact that various countries have been working chips in recent years.
The demand for lithography machines is also bound to increase, so why are Intel, Samsung, and TSMC selling their stakes in ASML?
Sale of shares in ASML
In the past ten years since ASML was founded, it was an important moment in the development of science and technology in the world, so he also relied on lithography machines to make a lot of money all over the world.
And Samsung, TSMC and Intel, as equity investors in ASML, have also made a lot of money in recent years.
According to the available data, the share prices of these three companies on the European stock exchange soared by nearly 180% at the peak.
However, who would have thought that TSMC would sell all its shares in ASML before December 31, 2015.
The sale price this time was twice as high as the price he had previously purchased, and TSMC also made $695 million because of this sale of shares.
Coincidentally, on February 21, 2024, South Korea's Samsung's latest audit report showed that he had already cleared all the shares of ASML.
According to the calculations of professionals, Samsung sold ASML shares this time and directly cashed out nearly 6.5 billion yuan, which can be regarded as a very successful investment.
As one of the three giants of ASML, two of them have been found to have sold their shares, but what about Intel, the other investor?
Unlike the other two investors, Intel did not sell its shares all at once, but slowly and gradually sold its shares.
This also makes people feel very strange, why are they selling ASML's shares when it is clear that these years are in the limelight of ASML, and what else do we not know about in between?
What is the secret behind the sale of shares?
ASML can now be said to be unique, not only becoming the world's largest lithography machine manufacturer, but even achieving a monopoly position in high-end lithography machines.
Basically, countries that want to manufacture chips, the first choice is ASML's machine, and with the advent of ASML2 nanometer EUV lithography machine, it has also achieved his position in lithography machine.
TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, the three major shareholders of ASML, have shares in their hands, so they can also give priority to getting the goods they want.
Because there is no obstacle in the lithography machine, the semiconductor business of these three companies is also in full swing, and they can basically meet their own production needs.
However, a few years ago, China and the United States engaged in a "science and technology war", and in this war without gunpowder, the ASML team the United States refused to sell high-end lithography machines to China.
However, what ASML did not consider is that although TSMC, Intel and Samsung have a very large demand for lithography machines, they will gradually become saturated.
On the other hand, in the Chinese market, it is a time when high-end lithography machines are needed, but ASML does not sell lithography machines to China for various reasons.
Because of the wrong decision, ASML has now reached the point where no one buys it, because if it is not used for research and development, the low-end lithography machine can meet the general needs.
In addition, ASML has encountered a bottleneck in the production of EUV lithography machines, and if it wants to break through the technology, it needs more manpower and financial resources.
As soon as they saw that it was going to cost money, didn't TSMC sell their stocks one after another, just because they were afraid that ASML would ask them for "money" to engage in research and development.
At this time, ASML's backyard caught fire, and it thought of China and wanted to sell its chips to China, but China didn't buy it......
So, what's going on? Why doesn't China buy ASML?
China is not buying it
In recent years, China's research and development in science and technology can be described as a green light, and the British media "Financial Times" also reported a news.
That is to say, China has developed very rapidly in the "science and technology war" in recent years!
At that time, when China needed ASML's high-end lithography, they chose to side with the United States and not sell high-end lithography machines to China.
In 2022, ASML released a set of data that found that the Chinese mainland market accounted for only 14% of his total market share, down 2% from 16% in 2021.
In other words, the demand for ASML lithography machines in the Chinese team is getting lower and lower, and we no longer need its lithography machines.
It is not difficult for us to understand such a situation, on the one hand, because the domestic lithography machine is slowly coming up.
Shanghai Microelectronics' lithography machine can now achieve up to 22nm public welfare, and domestic wafer factories have slowly begun to buy domestic lithography machines.
We need to know that ASML is not the only one in the world that produces lithography machines.
Although Nikon and Canon, which have been mentioned earlier, do not have too many high-end lithography machines, it is still very easy to replace ASML's general lithography machines with them.
The emergence of substitutes and the gradual development of lithography machines in China have gradually made us rely on the team ASML.
And the CEO of ASML once said in an interview: "If they can't get these machines, they will develop them themselves, which will take time, but eventually they will achieve their goals." ”
Sources of information:
Baidu Encyclopedia - https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%8D%B7%E5%85%B0ASML%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8/23408419?fr=ge_ala of the Dutch ASML company
CBN - Samsung sells all of its shares in ASML
Observer.com - CEO of lithography machine giant ASML: US export restrictions to China will promote China's successful research and development of its own technology
Observer.com - Intel continues to reduce its stake in ASML, which is less than 3%