Dutch Prime Minister Rutte has already visited China in 2024, and during his visit, Rutte publicly reiterated that the Dutch export controls on lithography machines are not country-specific. Rutte responded in response to a reporter's question, when a media reporter asked whether the Dutch export controls were due to the request of the United States, Rutte did not answer directly, but evaded the question in a tactful way. The Dutch lithography giant, whose business is mainly in China, has now undergone a change in management, with Christopher Fouquet taking the helm of the semiconductor equipment giant as president, and Christopher Fouquet being French, so it will bring a different role to the development of the company.
Before Christopher Fouquet, Wennink, who served as the chief executive, was Dutch, and it is clear that the lithography giants no longer give face to the Netherlands, and they already have the rhythm to fight against the United States. The lithography giant is actually an international company, headquartered in the Netherlands, and many of the components of the lithography machines it produces are not made in the Netherlands, after the company threatened to move its headquarters out of the Netherlands, for which the Dutch government promised to maintain the company's headquarters in the Netherlands by promising more preferential terms. Judging from Christopher Fouquet as the executive president, the lithography machine giant actually has a more long-term strategy, which is to play with the Dutch government.
According to French media reports, Christophe Fouquet has publicly stated that his first priority as president is to handle business in China. According to public data, the lithography machine giant has maintained the company's profits through sales in China, but because the Dutch government is obedient to the US sanctions strategy against China, the company's business expansion in China has been greatly restricted. Due to the export control of lithography machines issued by the Netherlands, many lithography machines cannot be sold in the Chinese market, which will obviously impact the interests of lithography machine manufacturers. The lithography machine giant has been very dissatisfied with the Dutch obedience to the US arrangement, and recently publicly stated that it will not stop the repair and maintenance business in China, thus responding to the pressure of US officials.
Officials of the U.S. Department of Commerce publicly issued a threat, claiming that they would ask Dutch lithography machine companies to stop providing lithography machine repair and maintenance business to China, and this time the French served as the executive president of the lithography machine giant, in fact, it has sounded the alarm bell for the United States and the Netherlands, because the French will not be the same as the Dutch, for the United States "obey orders", France has always emphasized independence, so it will not easily obey the orders of the United States. France has not yet had a US military deployment, which is an important sign that France is asserting its sovereignty. Christopher Fouquet as the CEO of the lithography machine giant is to insist on promoting business in China, and Christopher Fouquet has publicly stated that he will not change the company's strategy.
Christopher Fouquet's appointment as a lithography giant is a huge opportunity for France, which dares to say no to the United States, and if it takes advantage of French manufacturing, the lithography giant will be more capable of fighting against the United States, thereby promoting the development of its business in China. Now the lithography machine giant has felt the huge pressure, because the US sanctions on China's chip industry have given birth to the independent development of China's chip production equipment, which will impact the revenue of the lithography machine giant. Judging from the public data, in the first quarter of 2024, the operating income of the lithography machine giant has plummeted, for which there are remarks that Christopher Fouquet focuses on China.