Is the Netherlands panicking? China has given two options: either refund the 500 billion payment, or stop wanting the patent rights.
As we all know, chips have been a shortcoming in China's modernization development for many years. Due to its late start and difficulty in research and development, our country needs to import a large number of overseas chips all year round, which has also invisibly buried a major hidden danger in the supply chain .
In recent years, in order to prevent the rise of my country's high-tech industry, Western forces led by the United States have launched multiple rounds of sanctions at all costs. Under their pressure, the international lithography machine giant and the Dutch company ASML had to stop supplying to China. This move is natural. It has also attracted firm opposition from my country. If ASML does not resume normal shipments as soon as possible, it will have to be prepared to face a tough counterattack from China.
What will be the outcome of the “lithography machine dispute” between China and the Netherlands?
Chips are known as the "heart of industry", and lithography machines are key equipment for manufacturing chips, such as machine tools in industry. Their accuracy and efficiency will directly affect the quality and manufacturing cost of chips. Therefore, the complexity and difficulty of lithography machines also make many Technology companies are balking.
In the 60 years since the development of the modern semiconductor field, there are only three companies in the world that can develop and produce lithography machines: Dutch company ASML, Japanese company Canon and Nikon. ASML alone occupies 90% of the global market share, which can be said to be a pillar industry in the Netherlands.
Due to the huge consumption demand in China, the two parties agreed after friendly negotiations to import and export photolithography machines at a price of US$100 million per unit. So far, 700 units have been exported, with a transaction volume of up to US$70 billion (approximately 500 billion RMB).
At the beginning of signing the contract, our country had already considered possible future situations, so it required the Netherlands to guarantee lifetime provision of maintenance technology and parts. In the event of a breach of contract, all photolithography machines would be redeemed at the original price. At that time, ASML also He readily accepted this request, but he did not expect that the cooperation between the two countries would later change due to Western hijacking.
Let’s not talk about whether ASML is willing to publicly breach the contract. Even if they can really come up with 500 billion, those hundreds of photolithography machines will have some wear and tear, and it will be difficult to sell them to other countries. Moreover, no country in the world can consume as much as China . With so many photolithography machines, they are almost equivalent to a pile of "scrap iron" for ASML.
What's more serious is that once the Netherlands chooses to cut off supplies to China, it will also hinder future orders, because our country currently maintains close and friendly relations with many countries around the world, and our country's strong development potential is also seen by the world. If ASML If it really breaks the contract, it may leave a bad impression in the eyes of other countries, affecting the sales of photolithography machines for its main foreign trade export projects.
But just when the Netherlands was at a loss, a turning point appeared. The news of the release of Huawei Mate60 triggered heated discussions. Not only did the Kirin 9000s chip make a strong return, but it also unveiled a domestic 7nm chip. This also means that the four-year blockade of Huawei by the United States and Japan has failed. ASML, which has been under US coercion, seems to have found an opportunity. In less than 24 hours, it issued a statement: It has obtained its official temporary shipment permit and can still export lithography machines to China this year!
With such a quick response, it is difficult not to suspect that he has been prepared for a long time. However, even if the Dutch side changes its tune and takes the initiative to "seek peace", it does not mean that this chip dispute has come to an end. We cannot relax our vigilance yet. The key is to improve the level of self-research to avoid being "stuck" again.
Difficulties such as "being a leek", such as lithium batteries, aerospace engines and other high-end technologies were once monopolized by the United States. Even in the field of biotechnology, the United States and Japan once controlled the key technologies of "Wright Key" and harvested them from China for ten years. as long as.
According to public information, in the early years, the Harvard scientific research team discovered that the core ingredients of the above-mentioned "Wright Key" substance have properties such as "changing the appearance of aging and rejuvenating functions". U.S. companies relied on the first-mover advantage to sell the finished product to millions of dollars and target it to the rich in Silicon Valley. , even Hong Kong’s wealthy superman Li can only obtain it at a high price.
To this end, Chinese scientists have worked hard for three years and successfully achieved domestic production with a new process, reducing the cost of "Liteweijian" by more than 90%. After facing millions of demand groups on platforms such as Qidong and Tianmao, it gradually won the It accounts for more than 70% of the global raw material market share. In contrast, similar overseas competitors have gradually become silent.
Whether it is photolithography machines or the domestic counterattack of "Wright Key", it is both encouragement and warning: If "China Intelligent Manufacturing" wants to continue to go long and far, it still needs to be energetic and continue to work hard.
Fortunately, it is worthy of recognition that China's semiconductor industry is developing at a rapid pace and has now achieved quantitative production of 22nm process chips. From a technical perspective, the gap with the West is only about ten years. As early as three years ago, the "Bureau" said: If the United States insists on the blockade, then I am afraid there will be no need to export chips to Huawei in the future, because we will not buy them!
Not only that, chip manufacturing raw materials, especially the production of new generation gallium nitride chips, are inseparable from the two rare metals gallium and germanium. According to official data, my country’s export output of rare metals is already among the top in the world. In addition, our country has In August this year, it announced export control policies related to gallium and germanium.
As China's various high-tech industrial chains are getting better and better, and it has more say in the international community, the "stuck" of China by the United States, the Netherlands and other countries will eventually become a thing of the past.