Plans are in place to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the island responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its Dutch machinery supplier ASML reportedly have an answer.
ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines used by its Taiwanese client when the Dutch government asked the company about the threat, two other sources said. The Netherlands has run simulations on a possible invasion in order to better assess the risks, they added.
Spokespeople for ASML, TSMC and the Dutch trade ministry declined to comment. Spokespeople for the White House National Security Council, US Department of Defense and US Department of Commerce did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
The remote shut-off applies to ASML’s line of extreme ultraviolet machines, known within the industry as EUVs, for which TSMC is its single biggest client. EUVs harness high-frequency light waves to print the smallest microchip transistors in existence — creating chips that have artificial-intelligence uses as well as more sensitive military applications.
'Kill switch'
About the size of a city bus, an EUV requires regular servicing and updates. As part of that, the company can remotely force a shut-off which would act as a kill switch, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Veldhoven-based ASML is the world’s only manufacturer of the machines, which sell for more than €200 million apiece.
ASML’s technology has long been subject to government interventions aimed at preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. The Netherlands prohibits the company from selling EUV machines to China, for instance, because of US fears they could lend its rival an edge in the global chip war.
It was at the behest of the US that the Dutch began this year to halt exports of ASML’s next-most sophisticated chipmaking machines. Even before that ban took effect, US officials had asked ASML to cancel some previously scheduled shipments to Chinese customers, Bloomberg News reported.
The company expects as much as 15% of this year’s sales to China will be affected by the latest export-control measures.
Evidence suggests the restrictions may have come too late to stem Chinese advances. Huawei Technologies last year produced a smartphone to rival the Apple iPhone using chips made with older ASML printers in combination with tools from two US suppliers, Bloomberg News reported in October after conducting a break-down of the phone.
Beijing has made technological self-sufficiency a national priority and Huawei’s efforts to advance domestic chip design and manufacture have received government backing.
China has long claimed that the island of Taiwan is its territory, with President Xi Jinping both advocating for unification and refusing to rule out a military intervention. The superpower has been building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not seen since World War II and a top US admiral testified in March that it is readying to be able to invade Taiwan by 2027.
The US Congress last month approved $8 billion in aid to enhance the island’s defences. The Biden administration is also looking to boost semiconductor production on American soil, promising $39 billion in grants to chipmakers to hedge against any future supply-chain disruption.
High stakes
The stakes are high, with around 90% of the world’s most advanced chips made in Taiwan. On Monday, Taiwan inaugurated Lai Ching-te as president in the global chip hub, putting in power a man Beijing has branded an “instigator of war”.
The EUV machine has helped turn ASML into Europe’s most valuable tech stock with a market capitalisation topping $370 billion — more than double that of its client Intel Corp.
ASML has shipped more than 200 of its machines to clients outside China since they were first developed in 2016, with TSMC ordering more of them than any other chipmaker.
EUVs require such frequent upkeep that without ASML’s spare parts they quickly stop working, the people said. On-site maintenance of the EUVs poses a challenge because they are housed in clean rooms that require engineers to wear special suits to avoid contamination.
ASML offers certain customers joint service contracts where they do some of the routine maintenance themselves, allowing clients like TSMC to access their own machines’ system. ASML says it can’t access its customers’ proprietary data.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu hinted in a September interview with CNN that any invader of Taiwan would find his company’s chipmaking machines out of order.
“Nobody can control TSMC by force,” Liu said. “If there is a military invasion you will render TSMC factory non-operable.”