ASML can remotely disable chip machines if China invades Taiwan: report

ASML can remotely disable its sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan. The Veldhoven-based company assured Dutch officials about this option after United States government officials privately raised concerns about what would happen if China escalated its aggression, sources told Bloomberg. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) gave the same assurances.

Taiwan is responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors. China has been aggressive towards the island, and the U.S. worries that it will invade, especially since China has been blocked from purchasing its own sophisticated chipmaking machines.

The machines involved are ASML’s extreme ultraviolet machines (EUVs), which use high–frequency light waves to print the smallest microchip transistors in existence. Taiwan’s TSMC is the largest single client for these machines. According to Bloomberg’s sources, these EUVs require regular servicing and updates and ASML has assured that it can use this same channel to remotely shut down the machines.

The Dutch government has long restricted ASML from exporting its most advanced chip machines to China, partly due to U.S. fears that China would use them for military purposes. Last year, the Netherlands expanded those restrictions to also include ASML’s next-most sophisticated machines, also under American pressure.

There is now U.S. pressure on the Netherlands to also block ASML from maintaining or revising the equipment that shipped to Chinese clients before the export ban. The Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, Tan Jian, said last year that such restrictions will likely damage bilateral relations.