Japan Just Built What ASML Feared Most.

Yay Japan.

Ideally we should not have to rely on monopolies, but at least these are Dutch and Japanese, not Chinese. So far anyway.

ASML goes beyond making the processors. Via other manufacturers it has formed or acquired, it also builds the assembly machines that put the completed chips, as integrated-circuits, onto circuit boards, etc.

One example is British: DEK Printing Machines. It was originally formed to make industrial-grade screen-printing machines for labelling oil-drums and souvenirs, but gradually developed to making ones capable of masking embryo printed circuit-boards. Within ASML it now concentrates on those, building units that mate with other machines from elsewhere to form highly-automated, very high-precision circuit assembly-lines. Almost all of these are exported.