--- title: The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth | daily.dev description: ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the world's most advanced chips at nanometer... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth | daily.dev og:description: ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the world's most advanced chips at nanometer... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LiSYqzpDt.png og:image:alt: The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth **[Tiff In Tech](https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech)** · 11 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the world's most advanced chips at nanometer scale. These machines, costing $350M each, use laser-vaporized molten tin to generate extreme ultraviolet light and ultra-precise mirrors smoother than anything else ever built. TSMC in Taiwan then uses these machines to manufacture roughly 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductors, powering everything from iPhones to Nvidia AI chips. The extreme geographic and supply chain concentration — one machine maker, one dominant foundry, one island — represents a massive geopolitical and economic risk with no quick fix, as diversifying chip manufacturing could take a decade or more. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### why is ASML the only company that makes EUV lithography machines ASML is the sole producer because EUV lithography requires generating extreme ultraviolet light that does not exist naturally, done by firing lasers at molten tin droplets twice to vaporize them, then reflecting that light through a series of atomically smooth mirrors since normal lenses absorb EUV light. Building this system requires sourcing components from over 5,000 suppliers across 40 countries, making replication extremely difficult. _Anyone tracking chip supply chain risk can follow ASML and semiconductor manufacturing coverage on daily.dev._ ### how much does an ASML EUV lithography machine cost and how many are made per year Each ASML EUV machine costs around 350 million dollars, weighs as much as a commercial airplane, and requires 40 shipping containers to transport. ASML produces only a few dozen of these machines per year, meaning that is the entire global supply of the tool required to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors. _daily.dev helps hardware-curious developers keep up with bottlenecks like ASML's limited EUV machine output._ ### what percentage of the world's most advanced chips does TSMC manufacture TSMC manufactures roughly 90% of the world's most advanced chips, including Apple's M series, Nvidia's H100 GPUs powering the AI boom, and chips for Qualcomm and AMD. Its most advanced fabs are concentrated in Taiwan, a region facing significant geopolitical tension with China, creating a critical single point of failure with no backup plan at scale. _Developers weighing AI hardware risk can track TSMC and chip supply concentration news on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The world’s most complex machine](https://daily.dev/posts/the-world-s-most-complex-machine-f6llcj1pv) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Investors can’t get enough of ASML](https://daily.dev/posts/investors-can-t-get-enough-of-asml-g8w1uf2zh) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [China May Have Reverse-Engineered EUV Chip-Making Technology](https://daily.dev/posts/china-may-have-reverse-engineered-euv-chip-making-technology-4kusyzafn) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#supply-chain](https://daily.dev/tags/supply-chain) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T19:00:14.234Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:51:39.916Z","description":"ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the world's most advanced chips at nanometer...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xJveTK_0ewU/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xJveTK_0ewU/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Tiff In Tech","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Tiff In Tech","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--cw-MSz5l--/f_auto/v1724391415/logos/tiffintech","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"supply-chain","timeRequired":"PT11M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth","description":"ASML, a Dutch company, is the sole manufacturer of EUV lithography machines — the only tools capable of printing the world's most advanced chips at nanometer...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xJveTK_0ewU/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-10T19:00:14.234Z","duration":"PT11M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/LiSYqzpDt","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/xJveTK_0ewU"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tiff In Tech","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The One Company Behind Every Chip on Earth"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-company-behind-every-chip-on-earth-lisyqzpdt#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"why is ASML the only company that makes EUV lithography machines","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"ASML is the sole producer because EUV lithography requires generating extreme ultraviolet light that does not exist naturally, done by firing lasers at molten tin droplets twice to vaporize them, then reflecting that light through a series of atomically smooth mirrors since normal lenses absorb EUV light. 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