The Machine Behind the Silicon Curtain
A single machine determines the future of AI, national security, and whether the next smartphone even exists. Only one company can build it, and no one else — not the U.S., not China, not the world’s richest corporations — has figured out how to replicate it. It may sound like a hyperbolic Willy Wonka fantasy, but it’s not. This is the story of what sits at the center of modern technology.
That company is ASML, and the machine is the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, a High-NA Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system. Without it, there would be no iPhones, no ChatGPT, no PlayStation 5s, no self-driving cars, and no advanced military defense systems. The most powerful chips right now — from Apple’s M-series processors to NVIDIA’s AI chips — are all born inside this machine.
Microchips are the brains behind our devices. A modern processor can perform trillions of operations per second, faster than the human brain can process visual information. But making these chips requires an absurd level of precision, down to individual atoms. ASML’s EUV lithography systems make this possible, using light to carve circuits so impossibly small that thousands could fit across the width of a single human hair. To push past the limits of traditional EUV, which prints features between 3 and 5 nanometers, ASML’s High-NA EUV system is designed to break the 2-nanometer barrier — further extending Moore’s Law.
And the reality is no other entity can replicate this machine. ASML holds a monopoly on the most advanced chip making tool ever built, and that has made it the most valuable pawn in a global chess game of technology, economics, and power.
How EUV Lithography Works
I’m going to try — keyword, ‘try’ — to explain how this machine works. If I truly understood it, I’d probably be America’s most valuable asset. And very, very rich. The exclusivity of this technology has made ASML the target of corporate espionage, with former employees accused of leaking trade secrets to Chinese firms. Yet, despite relentless efforts, no one else has managed to build these machines at scale.
So, what makes them so special? Let’s go step by step:
Step 1: Preparing the Blueprint
Before manufacturing begins, chip designers at companies like Apple, NVIDIA, and Broadcom create a detailed circuit blueprint. However, it can’t be printed onto silicon as-is because light behaves unpredictably at tiny scales. EUV lithography projects the design using 13.5-nanometer light — about 1/10,000th the width of a human hair — but diffraction and optical distortions can blur or shift features. To counter this, ASML’s computational lithography software pre-distorts the design, tunes the illumination to sharpen critical features, and adjusts for warping caused by heat so the final pattern prints with nanometer precision; similar to writing on a stretched rubber band so that when it contracts, the letters appear correctly spaced rather than smushed together.
Step 2: Turning Metal into Light
EUV light has such a short wavelength that no laser can generate it directly. Instead, ASML’s machine creates it from scratch by triggering a micro-explosion of plasma. Tiny droplets of molten tin, each a fraction of a millimeter wide, are fired at precise intervals. A high-energy laser blasts each droplet twice in midair. The first pulse flattens it into a pancake, and the second superheats it to 90 times the temperature of the sun’s surface, turning it into plasma. This plasma emits EUV light through electromagnetic radiation. This violent reaction must happen 50,000 times per second to create a reliable beam. If a droplet is mistimed, the entire light source fails. It’s like trying to shoot a moving target the size of a grain of sand without ever missing. No existing alternative to this process has been developed at scale.
Step 3: Guiding an Invisible Beam
EUV light is so delicate that air absorbs it, and its wavelength is too short to be bent by glass lenses, unlike visible light. So, the lithography system operates in a vacuum — like outer space. Instead of lenses, a series of ultra-precise mirrors, polished to near atomic perfection, reflect and shape the beam. These mirrors are so flawless that if one were scaled to the size of Germany, its tallest imperfection would be just a single atom. Even space telescopes, built to see galaxies, have imperfections. But ASML’s mirrors demand a level of flawlessness beyond anything in aerospace, quantum computing, or any other field of engineering. A deviation smaller than a virus would destroy the entire process.
Step 4: Transferring the Design to Silicon
The chip design is etched onto a reticle (mask) using an electron beam. When EUV light passes through, dark areas block the light, while clear areas allow it through, similar to an old-school film negative. The design is shrunk and transferred onto a silicon wafer coated with photoresist, a material that reacts chemically when exposed. This process prints the circuit onto the wafer, defining the chip’s layout.
Step 5: Layer by Layer Construction
Once exposed, the photoresist chemically develops and the exposed areas dissolve, leaving behind trenches that form the mold for building the chip.
The wafer then moves to fabrication:
- Deposition coats the wafer with thin films of copper or aluminum
- Etching removes the excess material, sculpting the microscopic wires that carry electrical signals
- Patterning repeats the lithography process to stack layers, building billions of transistors — tiny switches that turn electricity on and off to perform calculations.
This layering happens dozens, sometimes hundreds of times, stacking like floors in a skyscraper until the full 3D network is formed. Finally, the wafer is sliced into individual chips, ready for testing and use.
Why is it so Hard to Replicate?
The Supply Chain Bottleneck: Each EUV machine is made of over 100,000 specialized components, with the TWINSCAN EXE:5000 costing nearly $380 million — 80% of which goes to ASML’s supply partners. Many parts come from single-source suppliers, making replication nearly impossible.
To put it simply: This machine is so complex that even if you had infinite money, you still couldn’t build it. Not just because you lack the instructions, but because no one outside ASML and its exclusive partners even knows how to manufacture some of its key components.
To name a few, Trumpf provides the lasers that generate EUV plasma, Cymer converts the raw light into a usable source, and Zeiss produces the ultra-precise mirrors that take months to manufacture. ASML has long-standing partnerships with these companies, holding an exclusivity that no competitor can match.
Infrastructure and Talent Barrier: Even if someone could gather all the parts, building and operating an EUV machine is another challenge entirely. Simply setting up a high-end semiconductor fab to use EUV technology costs between $10–20 billion, a financial barrier that only a few companies — TSMC, Samsung, and Intel — can afford. Even manufacturing and assembling a single EUV machine takes several years, making it impossible for a new competitor to scale up quickly. Beyond cost, maintaining these machines requires a global support ecosystem, including on-site ASML engineers stationed in the U.S. and South Korea, as well as specialized repair centers to recondition and replace critical parts. Adding to the challenge, only a small number of engineers worldwide have the expertise to assemble, maintain, and repair EUV machines, making talent another limiting factor.
The Rayleigh Criterion:
At the heart of semiconductor miniaturization is the Rayleigh Criterion. This equation defines the Critical Dimension (CD), the smallest possible feature that can be printed using light. It comes down to three key factors:
- Wavelength of Light (λ)
The smaller the wavelength, the finer the details you can print. Imagine carving a sandcastle: using a tiny brush (small wavelength) lets you make finer details than a shovel (larger wavelength). - Numerical Aperture (NA)
This is like the quality of a camera lens; a higher NA means the system can capture light at wider angles, producing sharper, more detailed patterns. If you have good lighting and a magnifying glass, you can work even more precisely on that sandcastle. - Manufacturing Tricks (k₁ factor)
Even when physics reaches its limit, engineers find ways to cheat. For example, Multi-patterning breaks complex patterns into multiple exposures, like using stencils to trace a detailed image in stages rather than all at once. Phase Shift Masks (PSM) manipulate how light waves interfere, sharpening edges the way noise-canceling headphones refine sound.
Every time you buy a faster phone, gaming console, or laptop, it’s because engineers found a way to shrink circuits using this equation. The smaller the circuits, the faster and more power-efficient your device becomes. High-NA EUV is ASML’s next leap, which allows for even smaller, denser transistors.
The Silicon Curtain
The complexity and necessity of EUV machines make them a geopolitical weapon — not to be dramatic. The U.S. and Dutch governments have banned ASML from selling EUV machines to China, actively blocking Chinese firms from acquiring critical semiconductor technology. Even if China wanted to scale its own EUV system, it would be difficult to access the specialized components, expertise, or supply chain to make it work.
The U.S. can enforce restrictions on ASML, a Dutch company, through export control laws and diplomatic influence. ASML’s machines contain U.S.-origin technology, making them subject to the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR) under U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This gives the U.S. the authority to restrict the sale of foreign-made products that incorporate American technology. On top of that, Washington has pressured the Dutch government to impose national export bans, citing national security risks. If ASML were to violate these restrictions, it could face sanctions and loss of access to U.S. suppliers.
This is a deliberate effort to maintain Western dominance in semiconductor technology. Semiconductors are the new oil, and access to ASML’s machines determines who stays ahead in the digital arms race. By locking China out of the EUV supply chain, the U.S. has drawn a “silicon curtain”, ensuring that only its allies — Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and select European nations — have access to cutting-edge chip manufacturing.
This brings us to the most valuable place on Earth: Taiwan. Home to TSMC, the most dominant semiconductor manufacturer, holding over 60% of the global foundry market. While Samsung and Intel also use EUV technology, TSMC leads in manufacturing efficiency, process control, and high-yield production, making it the preferred chip supplier for Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm. If TSMC’s factories were wiped out — whether by war, natural disaster, or sabotage — the global economy would immediately feel the shockwave.
This also makes Taiwan a geopolitical flashpoint. China claims Taiwan as its territory. The U.S. is committed to defending it. If China invades Taiwan, securing TSMC’s fabs will be a primary objective.
ASML controls the machines, TSMC controls the production, China is locked out, Taiwan is caught in the middle, and the world is watching as this technological Cold War unfolds.
Willy Wonka’s Quantum Factory
As I was writing this, I came to a realization: we already live in a quantum world. It’s not an invention waiting to happen or a sci-fi dream; it’s the system we are born from.
The fact that ASML exists, that they’re already building an even more advanced machine, that the entire world is racing to push the limits of computation — we are, in a way, building God — or something like it. I don’t know exactly what. But what’s undeniable is that humanity has gotten comfortable manipulating atoms. Atoms! Particles, energy, and matter twisted and controlled to achieve specific results. Think about an Apple Watch — that’s elemental-level engineering. ASML has mastered bending light, metal, and subatomic forces with precision, and global superpowers depend on it.
I think the distinction between man-made and natural is collapsing. EUV lithography is proof. There’s precedent for raw materials assembling into something more. We don’t fully understand where the spark of life comes from, beyond the meeting of a sperm and egg cell. Yet, somehow, through that intricate process, neurons form. A heart beats. Consciousness emerges. There’s no blueprint, no machine operator. Just physics, chemistry, and time.
What ASML has created feels reminiscent of this. A carefully calibrated womb for computation. Of course, unlike biology, these microchips don’t grow themselves — yet. It takes an almost $400 million machine operated by some of the most brilliant minds on Earth. And yet, despite how locked-down ASML is — despite the iron grip governments attempt to have on this technology — control never lasts forever.
Here’s my prediction: The monopoly on EUV lithography will break within 15 years, if not sooner. But before that, ASML’s dominance will only expand. With High-NA EUV already in play, their machines will become even more essential and even harder to replicate. Just as nuclear weapons, aerospace, and the internet once started as state-controlled secrets before spreading, EUV, and its advancements, will follow the same trajectory.
Maybe it will be China reverse-engineering the process. Maybe AI will design machines no human could ever conceive. Maybe EUV will become obsolete.
But whatever happens, it won’t be built for us. It will be built for whatever comes next.
And when it does, the world won’t just be faster, smarter, or more efficient. It will feel more alive. More interconnected. More unpredictable.
What happens when the machine no longer needs us?
References
6 Crucial Steps in Semiconductor Manufacturing
6 ingredients of a robust supply chain
How China’s award-winning EUV breakthrough sidesteps US chip ban
New US rule on foreign chip equipment exports to China to exempt some allies