ASML is the Dutch manufacturer of the specialized lithography machines needed to produce the world's most advanced computer chips.
The company was founded in 1984 as a joint venture between Philips and the semiconductor-equipment maker ASM International. Its original name, Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography, was shortened to ASML.
ASML is best known for extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography systems. These machines use extremely short-wavelength light to help chipmakers print tiny circuit patterns on silicon wafers. Their complexity and scarcity have made ASML a crucial supplier to the semiconductor industry and helped support its status among the world's richest companies by market capitalization.
ASML does not generally manufacture finished consumer chips. Instead, it makes equipment used by companies such as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. It is also distinct from Applied Materials, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron, which make other major categories of semiconductor-production equipment.