Dutch chip toolmaker ASML has revealed an worker in China lately stole details about its expertise which can have resulted in export controls being violated, in an incident that underscores the corporate’s significance within the world battle to provide superior semiconductors.
ASML, the worldwide chief within the manufacturing of so-called lithography machines that use gentle to etch semiconductors, stated in its annual report on Wednesday that it had been “topic to misappropriation of knowledge referring to proprietary expertise by a (now) former worker in China”.
“Though we don’t imagine that the misappropriation is materials to our enterprise, sure export management laws might have been violated,” it added, on condition that current worldwide export controls relate to the availability of knowledge in addition to bodily instruments.
The corporate stated it had reported the incident to the Dutch and US authorities.
ASML, the biggest tech firm in Europe with a market capitalisation of €248bn, holds a novel and essential place within the chip provide chain as the one firm capable of make extremely refined excessive ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines. It has additionally discovered itself entangled within the commerce conflict between Washington and Beijing since 2019 when a cargo of considered one of its EUV machines to China was blocked.
The problem of IP theft and tech switch isn’t new to ASML. Its final annual report flagged issues {that a} Chinese language firm specialising in merchandise to enhance chip yields had doubtlessly infringed its mental property, although the incident in query passed off in 2015.
After a concerted lobbying effort by the US, the Dutch and Japanese governments agreed final month to additional tighten their restrictions on sure instruments and applied sciences that might help the enlargement of China’s superior chip sector.
Peter Wennink, ASML’s chief government, stated in an announcement accompanying the report that he understood that these new measures “cowl superior lithography instruments in addition to different forms of gear”.
“On a geopolitical stage, the bifurcation of socio-economic blocks — with the related export and import controls — is threatening the event of the worldwide village that contributed a lot to quite a lot of the innovation we now have seen in recent times,” he stated. “If international locations or commerce blocks withdraw into their very own territories, then innovation can be much less efficient and dearer.”
He famous nevertheless that he didn’t count on these new measures to have a cloth affect on ASML’s enterprise for 2023.
Final month, the toolmaker reported a file order backlog of greater than €40bn and forecast that gross sales would enhance by 25 per cent this yr. Wennink stated that any gross sales misplaced by way of export controls could possibly be recouped by promoting to prospects in its rising backlog.
Given ASML’s efficient monopoly on the superior machines required to make superior chips, some analysts have questioned whether or not intensifying restrictions may turbocharge China’s efforts to develop its personal home toolmaking business.
In December of final yr, Huawei reportedly filed a patent utility for one of the crucial superior sides of an EUV machine.
