ASML is the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines.
Lithography machines project patterns onto semiconductor wafers, helping create the microscopic circuits inside chips. ASML’s extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, systems use 13.5-nanometer light to print extremely small features for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
ASML is headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands, and was founded in 1984 as a joint venture of Philips and Advanced Semiconductor Materials International. Its systems are used by major chip manufacturers, including TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. The machines are extraordinarily complex and depend on a global network of specialist suppliers.
ASML is not primarily a chip designer or chip foundry. Its strategic importance comes from making equipment that enables leading-edge chip production. That specialized position has helped make ASML one of Europe’s most valuable publicly traded technology companies.