ASML Holding
ASML holds a 100% monopoly on the machines that make modern computing possible - and impossibly expensive.
ASML holds a 100% monopoly on the machines that make modern computing possible - and impossibly expensive. The Dutch company's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems are the only equipment capable of printing sub-7nm semiconductor features. Each machine costs $150-200 million, weighs 180+ tons, requires 40 freight containers to ship, and takes a year to build. ASML produces only 50-60 machines annually because EUV lithography required 30 years and $10+ billion in R&D to develop mirrors polished to atomic precision using 13.5nm wavelength light.
But ASML's genius isn't monopoly through manufacturing - it's monopoly through mutualism. The company doesn't make most components. It orchestrates hundreds of specialized suppliers (Zeiss for optics, Cymer for light sources, VDL for mechanical modules) in intensely mutualistic relationships involving co-development, long-term commitments, and financial support. With €27.6 billion in revenue and 42,000 employees, ASML functions as keystone species: remove it, and Moore's Law stops. No alternative EUV technology exists.
The lesson: some monopolies aren't built by out-competing rivals - they're built by making the problem so hard that attempting it independently is suicidal. ASML's moat is physics.
ASML Holding Appears in 2 Chapters
ASML is the keystone behind the keystone - holding 100% monopoly on EUV lithography, the only technology enabling sub-7nm chips.
How ASML became the semiconductor industry's keystone →ASML exemplifies mutualistic ecosystems, integrating systems from hundreds of specialized suppliers through co-development partnerships.
ASML's mutualistic supplier network →