U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has privately warned executives at ASML, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, that he believes one of the company's extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines may have been smuggled into China, according to Bloomberg. The claim is explosive because EUV systems are the only tools on Earth capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor circuits, and exporting them to China has been prohibited under U.S.-led export controls since the first Trump administration. Senior administration officials told Bloomberg they have evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment to China, though they have repeatedly declined to share that evidence with Bloomberg, ASML, or anyone else. The Commerce Department also did not respond when asked whether it has proof of an actual EUV system on Chinese soil.
ASML has flatly denied the accusation, insisting that no EUV machine is currently in China and that none has ever been. The company's stance puts it in direct public conflict with the U.S. government over one of the most sensitive technology leaks imaginable. CEO Christophe Fouquet, who sat down for an interview roughly six weeks before the story broke, has long maintained that ASML strictly complies with export-control rules governing its most advanced equipment.
The stakes of this dispute are hard to overstate. ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands, holds a monopoly on EUV lithography, a technology that took roughly two decades and tens of billions of dollars to develop. Every cutting-edge processor fabricated by TSMC, including chips designed by Nvidia and Apple, depends on ASML's tools, and there is no second supplier anywhere in the world. That monopoly has propelled ASML to a market capitalization near $700 billion as of this week, making it Europe's most valuable publicly traded company, fueled largely by insatiable AI-driven demand.
If even a single EUV machine did reach China, it would represent one of the most damaging breaches of the export-control regime Washington has constructed over the past several years to prevent Beijing from acquiring the manufacturing capability needed to produce advanced AI chips for military and industrial use. With no public evidence yet made available on either side, the confrontation leaves ASML, the U.S. government, and global chip watchers waiting to see whether proof emerges, or whether one of the two parties backs down.