Anxious to slow down China’s technological development, Washington announced in October 2023 new restrictions on exports of chips dedicated to AI to the Middle Kingdom. At the start of 2024, the technological war between the United States and China is starting again with the adoption of new international measures by the government of the Netherlands, a key ally of Washington.
Dutch company ASML says it can no longer sell its photolithography machines to China, citing the revocation of a shipping license by the Dutch government. Essential for producing the most advanced electronic chips (engraved in less than 7 nm), these machines are very expensive to manufacture and only the ASML company is able to assemble them.
ASML now deprived of a (large) part of the Chinese market
Pronounced by the government of the Netherlands following pressure from the United States, this decision caused ASML’s stock market quotation to plummet. And for good reason, mainland China is none other than the manufacturer’s third market, after Taiwan and South Korea. Note that in the third quarter of 2023, the Middle Kingdom alone represented 46% of the company’s turnover. ASML shares have fallen 4.8% over the last five days.
Beijing was quick to react to ASML’s decision through the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, who accused the United States of resorting to “all kinds of pretexts to force other countries to impose technological restrictions against China“.
This decision, more political than economic, comes as the Chinese group Huawei has managed to overcome Western sanctions in the manufacturing of chips, by managing to equip its latest smartphones with promising processors engraved in 7 nm. Now, the Chinese group is showing its ambitions in the field of AI.