US claims China may have ASML’s top chip tool; company denies
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has expressed concern that one of ASML's most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines may have ended up in China, a major export control breach. ASML strongly denies the presence of any EUV machine in China and says it tracks all systems.
According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has, in recent meetings, voiced concerns to senior ASML executives that one of the Dutch chipmaker's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines – the only tools capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor patterns – may have ended up in China. Such a sale would violate export controls that have barred ASML from selling EUV to China since the first Trump administration.
Senior administration officials claim to have evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment to China, but have repeatedly declined to show it – to Bloomberg or, apparently, to ASML itself. The Commerce Department did not respond to questions about whether it has evidence of an actual EUV system on Chinese soil.
ASML denies the allegations. CEO Christophe Fouquet told TechCrunch that the company tracks every machine it has ever shipped – they are either in active use with monitored customers or have been dismantled and returned. He noted that ASML built an internal firewall years ago: employees with access to EUV technology, documentation, and training are separated from those without, and China-based staff are intentionally on the “wrong” side.
ASML does sell older-generation deep ultraviolet (DUV) tools to China – equipment it first shipped a decade ago – but Fouquet framed this as a protective measure, not a loophole, to maintain a generational gap without creating a future competitor. The company expects roughly 20% of its 2026 revenue to come from already-permitted sales to China.
The Commerce Department, under Lutnick’s leadership, agreed last year to invest up to $150 million in xLight, a startup developing next-generation light-source technology. xLight's CEO sees the company as a future partner to ASML, not a rival. Meanwhile, Peter Thiel has backed Substrate, a separate startup pursuing its own EUV-rival technology.
A bipartisan bill moving through Congress would go further, calling for an effective ban on all ASML DUV shipments to China, which account for about a fifth of the company’s expected 2026 revenue. The bill cleared a key committee in April, and the Trump administration has not taken a formal position.
