ASML CEO Wennink calls fairness of US export controls into question

Imposing additional export restrictions on ASML would be unfair, CEO Peter Wennink intimated in an interview with NRC (link in Dutch). He pointed out that, under the current controls, US companies are allowed to sell chips made using EUV scanners to Chinese customers, whereas ASML isn’t allowed to ship EUV scanners to China. “American chip manufacturers have no problem with China as a customer,” Wennink said, adding that “ASML has already sacrificed.”

Wennink also noted that US equipment makers have profited from the EUV export ban. Without access to the most advanced lithography equipment, China’s top foundry SMIC needed to double down on multipatterning, which heavily relies on advanced etch and deposition equipment. These tools are primarily supplied by US firms, Wennink said.

The interview was published a week after a report surfaced that the Dutch government has agreed to join the US export regime. No official announcement has been made, although two cabinet officials have stated on the record that the Netherlands won’t copy the US measures one-to-one.