This is the Dutch company that is all the rage among investors and may revolutionize the microchip industry

Although little known to many, the Dutch ASML is the tech giant that almost all industries depend on. Founded in 1984 and currently valued at $ 329 billion, it is the only company in the world capable of building the complex machines that make the most advanced microchips. With its latest invention, the High NA, the company seeks to redefine global electronics.

The result of a partnership between electronics giant Philips and microchip machine maker Advanced Semiconductor Materials International, ASML is Europe’s largest technology company by market value and one of the largest in the world. With more than 31,000 employees on different continents, it is estimated that its value will reach $ 500 billion by the end of 2022.

TSMC, Samsung and Intel are some of the companies that use ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine to create the transistors that make up the microchips in their computers and smartphones. The importance of transistors is that they are they allow electric current to flow through a circuit. Therefore, the more there are on a microchip, the more powerful and efficient it will be.

The High NA machine will feature a 0.55 aperture lens, allowing manufacturers to efficiently build microchips. even more sophisticated and smaller, with a dimension of less than three nanometers. Compared to the current EUV, which is priced at around $ 140 million and consists of 100,000 components, ASML’s new machine will be larger, more expensive and more complex. According to CNBC, the price of each High NA will be around $ 300 million and they are expected to be available for a first contact from 2023, but it will not be until 2025 when they are used in large-scale manufacturing.

Microchip shortage will last until 2023

Until then, industry, and consequently many sectors, will continue to suffer from the shortage of semiconductors. According to the latest Deloitte report, this situation could drag on until early 2023.

The sectors most affected by the lack of microchips will be those that demand highly advanced process loading (3, 5 and 7 nanometers), essential in data center servers and devices such as computers, mobiles and tablets.

Another of the great victims of this situation will be the automobile industry, due to its increasing dependence on high technology. In Spain, the shortage of semiconductors has meant that, in the first ten months of the year, the production of vehicles has been a 2.5% less compared to the same period of 2020 and 26.7% less compared to the same period of 2019, according to data from the manufacturers ’employers’ association (Anfac).

Despite this, global microchip sales will increase by 20% in 2021, and it is anticipated that rise a further 9% to $ 574 billion in 2022, as calculated by the Semiconductor Industry Association. The consultancy’s report indicates that this growth will be accompanied by greater dependence on Taiwan, Korea, the United States and China.