Washington and ASML Are at Odds Over the World's Most Powerful Chip Machine

A Bombshell Claim With No Public Evidence

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told senior executives at Dutch chipmaker ASML that he's concerned one of its extreme ultraviolet lithography machines — the only tools on Earth capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor patterns — may have ended up in China, a move that would constitute a major breach of export controls barring such sales since the first Trump administration. The allegation is extraordinary. And so is ASML's response: a flat, categorical denial backed by a paper trail of every machine it has ever built.

ASML went so far as to circulate a document titled "No indication of any ASML EUV system in China." That document counts 314 EUV machines worldwide, 26 decommissioned, with none in China. In meetings with ASML's leadership, Lutnick said U.S. officials had evidence the company was not acting in good faith on export controls, including the alleged export of specialty gear used to transport EUV machines. When pressed, officials reportedly declined to share the evidence, citing its sensitivity, and would not confirm that an actual EUV system had been found in China. In other words, the accusation was made — the proof was not produced.

Why This Machine Matters So Much

ASML is the only company in the world that makes these advanced chipmaking machines, and they have only ever gone to U.S. or U.S.-friendly companies such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung — until now, potentially. EUV systems are used by firms like TSMC to manufacture processors for customers including Nvidia and Apple. Getting one of these machines would be a seismic shift for China's semiconductor ambitions.

It would be a big deal if China did have an EUV machine, because it would move the country much closer to the chipmaking ability of Western firms like TSMC. ASML's CEO had previously said China was 10 to 15 years behind the West in its chipmaking capabilities. China's lack of access to EUV tools remains one of the toughest constraints facing Huawei Technologies, the country's leading AI chip developer and primary domestic rival to Nvidia.

ASML's Defense — and Its Business Dilemma

ASML's response was unusually firm: it has never shipped an EUV lithography machine to China — not one — nor any component built specifically for one, and it says it knows where every machine it has ever made is, because they phone home. ASML's CEO argued that the only reason the company could build an EUV machine at all was that 80% of it already existed from decades of prior knowledge, and that solving the one genuinely new problem — generating EUV light itself — took 20 years. His broader point was that you can't reverse-engineer a machine you've never had.

ASML does sell older-generation deep ultraviolet tools to China — gear it first shipped a decade ago — but CEO Christophe Fouquet framed that explicitly as a protective calculation, not a loophole. The idea is that it keeps enough of a generational gap that customers can still do business, but without manufacturing its own future competitor. ASML expects roughly 20% of its 2026 revenue to come from already-permitted sales to China. Risking the EUV ban entirely would put that revenue, and the company's standing as the most valuable monopoly in European industry, on the line over a single illegal sale.

A Bigger Battle Looming on the Horizon

Senior Trump administration officials also expressed broader concern that ASML has been prioritizing short-term profits over national security considerations, pointing to earlier legal DUV shipments that accelerated before certain controls took effect. That tension signals this dispute is about far more than one machine.

In April 2026, U.S. lawmakers introduced the MATCH Act, a bill that would also ban the export of DUV immersion machines and the servicing of existing machines in China — going a step further than the current situation, in which EUV is already banned but ASML is still permitted to supply DUV machines to a limited extent. Separately, the Commerce Department under Lutnick committed up to $150 million in taxpayer money to xLight, a startup building next-generation EUV light-source technology — a move that suggests Washington is also quietly working to erode ASML's monopoly itself. With billions in revenue and the future of the global chip supply chain at stake, this standoff is far from over.