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AMSTERDAM – ASML Holding and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) have ways to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns to both their Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the island responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, two of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines when the Dutch government met the company on the threat, two other sources said.
The Netherlands has run simulations on a possible invasion in order to better assess the risks, they added.
Spokespeople for ASML, TSMC and the Dutch trade ministry declined to comment.
Spokespeople for the White House National Security Council, US Department of Defence and US Department of Commerce did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
The remote shut-off applies to Netherlands-based ASML’s line of extreme ultraviolet machines, known within the industry as EUVs, for which TSMC is its single biggest client.
EUVs harness high-frequency light waves to print the smallest microchip transistors in existence – creating chips that have artificial intelligence uses and more sensitive military applications.
About the size of a city bus, an EUV requires regular servicing and updates. As part of that process, the company can remotely force a shut-off which would act as a kill switch, the sources said.
ASML is the world’s only manufacturer of these machines, which sell for more than €200 million (S$292 million) apiece.
ASML’s technology has long been subject to government interventions aimed at preventing it from falling into the wrong hands.
The Netherlands prohibits the company from selling EUVs to China, for instance, because of US fears they could lend its rival an edge in the global chip war.
It was at the behest of the US that the Dutch began in 2024 to halt exports of ASML’s next-most sophisticated chipmaking machines. Even before that ban took effect, US officials had asked ASML to cancel some previously scheduled shipments to Chinese customers, Bloomberg News reported.
The company expects that as much as 15 per cent of 2024’s sales to China will be affected by the latest export-control measures.
The stakes are high, with around 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced chips made in Taiwan.
The EUV has helped turn ASML into Europe’s most valuable tech stock, with a market capitalisation topping US$370 billion – more than double that of its client Intel.
ASML has shipped more than 200 of the machines to clients outside China since they were first developed in 2016, with TSMC snatching up more of them than any other chipmaker.
EUVs require such frequent upkeep that without ASML’s spare parts they quickly stop working, the sources said. On-site maintenance of the EUVs is a challenge as they are housed in clean rooms requiring engineers to wear special suits to avoid contamination.
ASML offers certain customers joint service contracts where they do some of the routine maintenance themselves, allowing clients like TSMC to access their own machines’ system.
ASML says it cannot access its customers’ proprietary data.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu hinted in a September interview with CNN that any invader of Taiwan would find his company’s chipmaking machines out of order.
“Nobody can control TSMC by force,” Mr Liu said. “If there is a military invasion, you will render TSMC factory non-operable.” BLOOMBERG
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