12/18/2025
BREAKING:
🇨🇳 The monopoly is over
China has succeeded in producing an ultraviolet lithography machine for the production of advanced chips - Reuters
China built a prototype extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine in Shenzhen, the tool needed for the most advanced chipmaking, Reuters reports.
Until now, ASML is the only company that has truly cracked EUV technology.
Its machines cost about $250 million each and are critical for making the most advanced chips designed by Nvidia and AMD, and manufactured by TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.
The result marks the payoff of a 6-year government program focused on semiconductor independence.
People compared it to China’s version of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. wartime program that built the atomic bomb.
China's prototype reportedly generates EUV light and is being tested, but it has not produced working chips yet, with 2028 and 2030 mentioned as targets.
Sources describe former ASML engineers helping reverse engineer parts of the system, and Huawei coordinating a wider effort across labs and suppliers.
“The aim is for China to eventually be able to make advanced chips on machines that are entirely China-made,” one of the people said. "
