ASML Chief Executive Christophe Fouquet stated that replicating an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system presents enormous barriers.

In an interview, Fouquet said: "Only one company in the world can build this kind of equipment. There is a huge gap between wanting to build the equipment and actually having the ability to build it."

"Being able to generate EUV lithography images is only the starting point. You need to achieve mass production of billions of chips, balancing high speed, low cost, and nanoscale precision, while also ensuring high equipment uptime and reliability. This is the accumulation of decades of technical experience, supply chain capability, and engineering expertise 鈥?there are no shortcuts."

He explained that a single EUV lithography machine weighs approximately 180 tons and relies on hundreds of core suppliers including Zeiss optics; a single unit costs more than $400 million, and assembly and calibration alone take several months.

The AI boom has significantly boosted demand for ASML's equipment. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Google together plan to invest more than $600 billion in AI-related infrastructure. Advanced chip production at TSMC, Samsung, and Intel relies entirely on ASML's EUV equipment.

Even as large amounts of venture capital pour into various lithography technology startups, Fouquet believes that money alone cannot overcome the physical, supply chain, and engineering obstacles. "Money cannot buy decades of accumulated expertise overnight."

But he also warned against complacency: "We cannot take our current market position for granted. We must continue to innovate year after year."

Anyone worried about the tech industry's short-term profit-seeking culture, the ostentatious behavior of tech upstarts, and the risk of an AI bubble bursting at any moment should visit Veldhoven in the Netherlands 鈥?an unassuming Dutch town that is home to Europe's most valuable company.

ASML can be considered the most influential yet low-profile company in the AI ecosystem. The town has a population of 47,902, nearly half of whom work for ASML, and the company additionally employs 25,000 people globally. They quietly manufacture and sell increasingly massive equipment that can produce increasingly tiny computer chips.

And the company's CEO, Christophe Fouquet, is definitely not the flamboyant tech upstart type. This pragmatic French physicist stands in sharp contrast to the sales-driven crowd of Silicon Valley, and at the same time, he possesses a more convincing long-term perspective on technological progress.

In a plain conference room at ASML's headquarters, Fouquet told me that the secret to this 42-year-old company's success lies in teamwork. "If I had to sum it up, it largely comes down to deep collaboration with the entire ecosystem 鈥?on one hand our customers, and on the other our supply chain," he said.

In his description, ASML is a model of European corporate collaboration, in stark contrast to aggressive American companies. Although many outsiders still do not know about ASML, it has become an increasingly critical hub in global chip manufacturing. It holds an extremely high share of the chip lithography equipment market, and in the most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) segment 鈥?indispensable for manufacturing complex AI chips 鈥?it holds a complete monopoly.

Fouquet said: "Many countries around the world have entered a catch-up phase, and a small number of companies have already mastered the key capabilities that determine the future of the entire economy."

He mentioned that over the past year ASML's stock price surged 88%, reaching a market capitalization of 591 billion euros. He explained that investors were initially impressed by Nvidia's AI chip design blueprint, and only later realized that TSMC is crucial for producing those chips.

"Then everyone couldn't help but ask: 'So what does TSMC use to make these chips?' That's when people discovered that they use EUV lithography machines. And suddenly everyone understood: only ASML, and no other company in the world, can build this kind of equipment."

In a highly competitive global economic landscape, why would the world allow a company in a small Dutch town to become another critical chokepoint in the AI industry, alongside data center construction and energy supply?

Fouquet replied: "The fundamental reason is the extreme complexity of the technology."

Earlier on the day of the interview, I had already seen the astonishing physics behind this $400 million EUV lithography machine. The equipment is as large as a double-decker bus, sprays 60,000 droplets of molten tin per second, and uses mirrors, lasers, and short-wavelength light sources in a near-vacuum environment, functioning like a nanoscale photocopier that prints circuits onto silicon wafers.

"Our customers all have this question in their minds: 'If I only have one supplier, is that safe?' Everyone says: 'I want to find a second supplier.' But to build equipment with equivalent capability, the technology that needs to be accumulated, the capital that needs to be invested, and the time that needs to be spent are all enormously vast."

Therefore, trust is crucial. "Our profits will grow along with the profits of the entire industry, but we will not abuse our current market position." He acknowledged that this sometimes sparks heated discussions at the shareholder level. Shareholders want the company to improve profit margins, increase debt on the balance sheet, expand investment scale, and boost returns on investment.

"We face this kind of question almost every day. But the core of this matter is not just about money. Even if I could spend billions of euros in exchange for a 20% capacity increase, of course I would be willing to do so. But constrained by supply chain realities, things are far more complicated than imagined."

ASML's supply chain system is extraordinary. An ordinary industrial product might require only a few dozen suppliers, but a single EUV lithography machine contains more than 100,000 components, sourced from 200 major suppliers and involving 2,000 companies in total.

Fouquet said this limits the company's ability to rapidly expand production, but it is precisely the key to ASML's success. The more complex the product technology, the more prominent the company's competitive advantage, and the faster our R&D iteration speed will be compared to other competitors.

ASML does not seek to be self-sufficient in all components, but instead outsources components to the world's top manufacturers: Zeiss handles optical components, Trumpf provides lasers, and VDL handles electromechanical systems. This model helped ASML overcome challenges that competitors 鈥?especially Japan's Nikon and Canon 鈥?could not solve. Nikon and Canon can now only hold on to the previous generation of deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography technology.

"We must bring together the world's top companies to accomplish this. Frankly speaking, if ASML had originally intended to develop EUV entirely in-house, we absolutely could not have succeeded."

When key suppliers are in fragile financial condition, ASML will directly acquire the company to ensure production. The 2013 acquisition of laser maker Cymer is a typical example. Recently, ASML also purchased an 11% stake in French AI startup Mistral. But overall, cooperation takes priority over acquisition.