AMSL and Chip Producing Technology

There is a company called ASML, has anyone heard of this company? 

Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography Holding N.V.

Founded in 1984 in the Netherlands, today it is a multinational company and a world giant. It is also the only company specialized in its field worldwide, a monopoly.

So what does this company do?

It manufactures a very special machine for the companies that produce chips in the world to produce chips!

Chips that work with ultraviolet rays and yes, those nano-sized chips are made with machines produced by this company.

The cost of a single device is 200 million Euros.

What the device does is actually as simple as what a photocopier does: you give it the design and it draws the design on the silicon plate. 

But of course, because this drawing process is done at nano levels, it has to be very precise, and for this purpose there are mirrors and lenses inside the device, and all these parts have to be made with super precision.

Otherwise, it's not possible to put transistors, resistors and diodes with the right design into a chip the size of the tip of a fingernail.

The biggest subsidiary of the company is naturally the company that produces these mirrors and lenses.

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Among the company's clients are only famous chip companies. 

Who are they?

Intel is the best known. 

But there is actually another company in the world that is bigger than Intel in chip technology.

Even though we don't know the name very well, we all know the country where this famous chip company is based.

Yes, it is a Taiwan company.

TSMC! Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited

This company produces a very large amount of the chips in the world today. Its market share is quite high. 

Among its customers are almost all the companies in the world that use chips in their products, including Apple, and even the F-35, the latest model aircraft of the US Air Force, which is very much on our agenda these days. Even coffee machine manufacturers are customers of this company.

Why this company was founded in Taiwan is a question I am really curious about.

I will say that there is nothing that the capitalist order cannot do for the lowest cost, but I cannot understand how wise it was to allow such an important industry to be established on a politically problematic island state like Taiwan, which the People's Republic of China does not recognize as a country and calls it its territory.

Nevertheless, the company was founded in Taiwan and it was Morris Chang, the founder, who made sure that the company was established on this island state.

The company was initially established as a sole proprietorship.

Morris Chang was born in 1931 in Ningbo, China, and later on he completed his education in the US, worked in various companies in the US for many years, most recently in Silicon Valley, and he is also an electrical engineer.

After starting his career in the US, he decided to continue his career in Taiwan and shifted all his investments to Taiwan, where he was the CEO of TSMC for many years. 

Today, due to his advanced age, he no longer holds any position other than honorary chairman of the company.

The company he founded, TSMC, has become a multinational conglomerate worldwide.

The issue has even become a political bone of contention between China and America.

China wants the company to shift its investments to China.

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Another big chip maker is, I think, the South Korean company Samsung.

Samsung is also one of the customers of ASML, which is a manufacturer of chip machines.

In fact, ASML, as a monopoly company, is quite capricious in choosing its customers. 

You can't just go and say, here's 200 million Euros, give me a chip production machine from there. 

In other words, relationships like give money, take money are not possible for this company. The issue is a bit about keeping the chip production market under control.

Even as a country, if you say I am going to establish a chip manufacturing factory in Turkey, for example, you first have to convince this company to produce machines for you. This is sometimes not possible no matter what you do.

Chip factories are not built with just this machine. Chip factories are huge investments worth tens of billions of dollars. Maybe even 30 billion dollars. Aside from the construction, there are millions of different machines, design bureaus, silicon sources, and even a lot of water.

Still, the most important equipment is the chip production machine.

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And there is fierce competition in this sector around the world.

Huawei, for example, which can make chips in China, has lost the chance to develop its technology because of the embargoes imposed by the US. 

Huawei cannot buy new machines from ASML and it is unlikely that China itself will be able to make these machines in the near future.

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Due to the disruptions in the production of chips needed especially by automobile companies during the corona pandemic days, TSMC was asked to make investments outside Taiwan and the company had to build a new factory in the US.

On the other hand, in order for Intel to be more effective in the chip manufacturing world again, the US decided to provide Intel with some investment support.

Most recently, President Biden signed a 52 billion dollar incentive.

Today, Intel has a large chip factory investment under construction in Ohio in the US. It is also building a factory in Ireland in Europe.

TSMC is building its new factory in Arizona in the US.

Samsung is expected to make a breakthrough in Europe and Huawei in China will see what it can do. 

Will Huawei's chip manufacturing machines be enough to succeed in these chip wars?

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Yes, the Dutch machinery company ASML continues to work on producing much more precise machines.

However, it is a mystery how long they will allow it to be a monopoly in this field.

Although it would be easy for the world to blame the Taiwanese TSMC for chip production, it seems that the decision to globalize chip production has been made because the Taiwanese company is almost the only producer (before the corona outbreak, almost 80% of the world chip production market share was in the hands of Taiwan!

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Of course, there are not only these few companies in the world that can produce chips. 

For example, there are some companies in Japan. There are a few other companies in the US, especially in computer technology, that can produce chips on their own. 

However, these few companies are actually the world giants.

Even China has recently made a move in this regard, but it is not as effective today as it was in the days when it made that move, especially with ASML's embargo.

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What about us?

I don't know about us. I think we are doing some work on chip production on our own. 

But these things don't happen just like that. Then, it is also a matter of infrastructure, or sub-industry.

Unfortunately, we do not have that infrastructure.

Even Israel has a chip production factory, but we have been lying on our ears until today.

In order to build a chip factory with national resources, you first need to be able to build the machines that you will put inside that factory.

Look, they are selling the machine to make a tiny chip for 200 million Euros. And only to those they want.

When they say they are not selling to you, you have nothing to do.

If you don't want to be dependent on foreign countries, you will develop your own technology!

That means you have to build that machine yourself first. 

In order to make that machine, you need to be advanced in mirror and lens technology.

I don't know what the requirements of mirror and lens technology are, but it goes on and on. 

In short, it was necessary to button the button properly from the beginning.

It's probably too late now.

Chips are the products of the future! And they are very expensive products.

Look how many billions of dollars we have to pay today even for the modernization kits of F-16s.

Is it very difficult to make those tiny kits?

Yes, believe me, it is very difficult!

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow.