Every road ends at ASML
Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and Microsoft design their own chips. Follow who builds them, and every road ends at ASML.
Could anyone else build these machines?
Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm send their designs to TSMC. Tesla's AI6 chip goes to Samsung, with mass production planned from 2027. Microsoft and Amazon signed up for Intel's newest process.
All three chipmakers need EUV machines to print their smallest chips. Only one company sells them: ASML, in the Netherlands.
ASML says it will ship about 65 of these machines in 2026. Inside each one, a laser hits 50,000 tiny drops of tin every second to make the light.
One caveat: each line is one chip, not everything these companies buy. Chipmakers still use older tools from other suppliers.
Why it matters: people usually mean Taiwan when they talk about chip risk. A narrower one is a single supplier that ships dozens of machines a year.
Save this for the next chip headline.
