ASML offered to spy for U.S. after breaking export ban to China in 2023, book claims
In 2023, ASML violated a “gentlemen’s agreement” with the United States concerning how many chip-making machines the company could sell to China, leading to anger among the Americans and embarrassment for the Dutch government. The company then offered to be the U.S.’s “eyes and ears” in China in an attempt to prevent further export restrictions, the Financieele Dagblad reported, based on the book De belangrijkste machine ter wereld by former Bloomberg journalists Diederik Baazil and Cagan Koc.
Citing anonymous sources, the authors of the book describe several conversations between the Netherlands, ASML, and the U.S. in recent years. One of these happened in November 2023, when it became clear that ASML had sold more machines to China than the U.S. had allowed.
In that conversation between then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte and ASML CEO Peter Wennink, Rutte warned the CEO that he was venturing into dangerous territory by violating an agreement with the U.S. He made clear that the Dutch government felt misled by the Veldhoven-based company and “humiliated” in the eyes of its most important ally. According to Rutte, regaining American trust was not only one of the U.S. government’s demands, but also in ASML’s best interest.
In January 2023, the Netherlands and the United States reached an agreement to further restrict the sale of ASML machines to China, intended to prevent China from gaining access to the most advanced chip-production equipment: EUV (extreme ultraviolet light) machines. Subsequently, the export of the less advanced DUV (deep ultraviolet light) machines to China was also prohibited.
The ban was to take effect in September 2023 and be implemented fully from January 2024. For the intervening period, there was a gentlemen’s agreement that ASML was only allowed to ship a limited number of already contracted DUV machines to China and was banned from selling any new machines.
However, during that period, ASML sold far more chip machines to China than agreed with the Americans, and the Americans were furious when they discovered this.
In the years that followed, the U.S. further increased pressure on ASML, demanding that the company stop servicing the machines it had sold to China. Wennink has been an outspoken critic of the Americans’ approach, arguing that excluding China would only lead to the country dedicating more energy to developing its own technology. But the U.S. disagreed with this reasoning and kept up the pressure.
According to the book, Wennink then made the striking suggestion that, if ASML engineers were allowed to continue serving Chinese customers, the company could provide the U.S. with insight into what goes on behind the walls of Chinese chip factories. ASML engineers visit the sites of their machines on a regular basis, maintaining the machines and speaking with local employees. “ASML could be Washington’s eyes and ears in China,” a senior American official said in the book.
When asked, an ASML spokesperson said in the book that such an offer was never made. He called it an inaccurate portrayal of events.
Wennink and ASML declined to comment to FD. They also did not cooperate with the book.
