China is not catching US in chip race anytime soon

The United States and its allies, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands, are engaged in an existential battle for semiconductor supremacy. Chips are at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution. Semiconductors enable the computation that powers data centers and the physical infrastructure required for AI.

At the center of the struggle is access to advanced manufacturing machines and associated technology. Here, the U.S. enjoys a large advantage over China, with full access to the technology of the Dutch company ASML. The most sophisticated chips, those with the smallest features measured in nanometers, require ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, which are essential for leading-edge semiconductors.