This week, Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma traveled to Washington to discuss the implications of the MATCH Act with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and several members of Congress. The proposed legislation aims to restrict Chinese semiconductor manufacturers from obtaining Western equipment, which would significantly impact ASML.
ASML, headquartered in the Netherlands, is the most valuable company in Europe and the sole producer of advanced lithography machines essential for manufacturing state-of-the-art AI chips.
“I find it crucial to present our concerns clearly to Congress,” Sjoerdsma stated to Bloomberg after his discussions. “The consequences for the Netherlands could be severe.”
ASML generates 19% of its net system sales from China. The MATCH Act seeks to expand existing restrictions by not only prohibiting the export of ASML’s advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) tools but also targeting its deep ultraviolet immersion machines.
As ASML’s CEO Christophe Fouquet mentioned to TechCrunch in May, the Chinese market currently has access to older deep ultraviolet machines that became available nearly a decade ago, which the MATCH Act would also make unavailable.
Introduced in April, the bill has not yet been put to a full vote in either the House or Senate. According to Bloomberg, it may need to be incorporated into a larger legislative package to advance.
