Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla all rely on microchips, but none of them can actually build them without a single, incredibly complex machine from a company called ASML. If this Dutch company stops, the entire global tech economy halts.

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ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the $200 million devices used to carve microscopic circuits into silicon chips. Weighing over 180 tons with 100,000+ parts and requiring three Boeing 747s to ship, these machines are essential to producing advanced microchips for companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla. ASML represents the ultimate global tech supply chain bottleneck: if it were to stop operating, advanced chip manufacturing worldwide would halt.

The 200 Million Dollar Machine That Controls the World