The Battle of Chips: Who is the king in the global market share competition?

On March 6th local time, according to the Dutch Telegraph, due to the Dutch government's anti immigration policy inclination, Asma is planning to leave the land that gave birth to it. This news is like a heavyweight bomb, causing a huge uproar in the Netherlands and even the global technology community.

ASML is a Dutch high-tech company founded in 1984, headquartered in Felixshoff, Netherlands. Focusing on providing advanced micro imaging technology and solutions for the global semiconductor and nanomanufacturing industries.

According to publicly available media information, ASML is the third largest company in Europe with a market value of nearly 365 billion euros. Last year, ASML achieved a record revenue of 27.6 billion euros, a 30% increase from 2022, and a surge in net profit to 7.8 billion euros, an increase of approximately 2.2 billion euros.

The spark that led to the emergence and departure of such a large and crucial company was the Dutch immigration policy. Last November, the Liberal Party led by far right populist Wilders won a resounding victory in the Dutch parliamentary elections, earning him the nickname "Dutch Trump". He advocates measures such as curbing immigration and reducing tax breaks for foreigners, which is in stark contrast to ASML's high dependence on foreign labor.

The company currently has 23000 employees, with over 40% being non Dutch. Due to the unique nature of this high-tech enterprise, the skilled workers are mostly foreign students studying abroad. This led to the idea of moving for this company. In addition, the high energy prices in Europe in recent years have also been a factor in his departure.

CEO Wenningke has warned that the consequences of restricting labor migration are enormous, and the company needs these talents for innovation.

In addition, the housing shortage in the Netherlands has also exacerbated Asma's departure. With the continuous expansion of the company, the demand for housing is also increasing, but the housing supply in the Netherlands cannot meet this demand. This forces them to consider finding more suitable development environments elsewhere.

     Faced with the severe challenge of the chip industry's global market share, Asma's CEO Wenningke recently revealed some thought-provoking information in an interview. Wen Ningke said that Europe's ambition in the global computer chip market may be difficult to achieve, mainly because the speed of production capacity construction is far from keeping up with market demand, making the goal of increasing global market share to 20% by 2030 "completely unrealistic".

It is reported that the Dutch government attaches great importance to this matter and has established a special working group called the "Beethoven Plan", led by Prime Minister Mark Luther, in an attempt to salvage Asma's intentions. However, Asma seems to have lost confidence in the Dutch immigration policy and expressed its intention to expand or relocate to the government, with France and other places potentially becoming its new home.

Asma's financial report shows that the company's sales in the Chinese market reached 6.4 billion euros in 2023, making it the largest market for the quarter. However, due to export restrictions from the United States and the Netherlands, it is expected that Asma's sales in the Chinese market may be affected by 10% to 15% in 2024.

Currently, Asma is the only company in the world that can provide the most advanced lithography machines. As the chip competition between China and the United States intensifies, the company not only has enormous economic value but also strategic significance.

In the chip industry, lithography machines are irreplaceable key equipment. Many countries around the world are constantly making breakthroughs in this field, especially China, as a rising star, has developed a high-speed and ultra precision laser interferometer in 2023, which has increased technological reserves for the development of advanced chip manufacturing technology in China and provided more choices and guarantees for the Chinese chip industry.

From the perspective of technological progress, fierce competition is not a bad thing. As a technology company, the change in its strategy is nothing more than to reduce costs and increase the competitiveness of its enterprise and products. We hope that these technology companies, especially tech giants, can promote development with their reasonable development strategies, thereby enhancing human well-being. As for who is the king, it is not really important.