ASML Can't Stay Neutral on China for Much Longer

ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) is one of the world's most important semiconductor equipment makers. The Dutch company holds a near-monopoly in lithography machines, which are used to etch circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), the world's most advanced contract chipmaker, can't produce its newest chips without ASML's EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machines. Samsung, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and other foundries also use ASML's machines, making it a crucial cog in the semiconductor sector, which is struggling with ongoing chip shortages.

ASML's dominance of the lithography market makes it an attractive investment, but it's getting squeezed in the escalating tech war between the U.S. and China. Let's see how ASML is trying to stay neutral in this conflict, and why it probably can't maintain that stance for much longer.

Source Fool.com