ASML has become the voice of the industry

Only a few years ago, major media outlets referred to ASML as a “relatively obscure Dutch company” (BBC), a “little-known tech juggernaut” (CNBC) and a “low-key Dutch company” (The Economist). These days, it’s a figurehead of the semiconductor industry. Unlike Applied Materials and Lam Research, which are hit by export restrictions to China as well, ASML has been in the limelight.

It didn’t have to be that way. Government measures that affect business obviously need to be addressed, but ASML could have easily brushed them off, repeating what it said about the EUV ban: if Chinese customers can’t buy the equipment, someone else will. If anything, the incentives offered by governments to build fabs will lead to more equipment sales.