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Applied Materials is a key player in semicom fabrication and it's American. There are also a handful of Japanese companies that hold virtual monopolies over key
by bazooka_penguin 6y ago
Applied Materials is a key player in semicom fabrication and it's American. There are also a handful of Japanese companies that hold virtual monopolies over key resources like fluorinated polyimide film, photoresists, and hydrogen fluoride and it became a big international issue when Japan revoked korea's free trade access to those materials.
It seems like there's been a deliberate push, like propaganda, to play up ASML's importance over everyone else in the past year or so. I've been seeing ASML brought up everywhere and often seemingly for no reason.
- totalZero 6y agoAgreed that ASML isn't the only important company, but they are clearly very important. EUV is the core technology for the leading-edge nodes of Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. ASML is the only company in the world that makes those machines. They sold 6 of them this past quarter and delivered 9, despite limitations on their ability to do business with Chinese foundries. They're approximately four-fifths of the lithography market in general, and basically five-fifths of the EUV market. So while their machines are not the only component of a foundry's toolkit, it's quite clear that ASML is a critically important business.
- joelbluminator 6y agoI don't understand enough about chip making but ASML seems to be an important part of the supply chain; it has a 80% market share over the litho machines it produces.
- twic 6y agoNot sure it's propaganda - i think that on HN at least, it's just the one company like this that everyone has heard of. Could you name these companies in Japan, so we know a few more?
- bazooka_penguin 6y agoShin-etsu chemical. You might have heard of them before, they're one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the world. Showa Denko KK, Kanto Denko Kogyo. There are more of course just some examples.
- fomine3 6y agoTokyo Electron, SUMCO