ASML

ASML is a Dutch company that exclusively produces EUV lithography equipment, which is essential for cutting-edge semiconductor production.

ASML is a Dutch company that produces exposure equipment needed to make semiconductors. Exposure equipment is a machine that engraves circuits on wafers with light. Among them, EUV (extreme ultraviolet) exposure equipment, which is essential for cutting-edge chip production, can only be manufactured by ASML in the world. Since ASML's equipment is absolutely necessary to make cutting-edge semiconductors, whether AI chips or smartphone chips, it is called a company that protects the most fundamental path to the AI boom. The world's top semiconductor companies, including TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and Intel, are all customers of ASML, and the price of a single piece of equipment amounts to hundreds of billions of won.

Because of this exclusive position, it is also at the center of the US-China semiconductor conflict. As exports of cutting-edge equipment to China were restricted due to demands from the United States, geopolitics became a representative example of companies determining performance.

✅ Strengths

• It is the only monopoly company in the world that produces cutting-edge EUV lithography equipment
• As long as the AI and semiconductor industries grow, we are on the road to guaranteed demand
• It is virtually impossible for competitors to enter due to technological barriers that have been accumulated over decades.

⚠️ Limits

• Performance is directly exposed to geopolitical risks such as Chinese export regulations
• Sales are largely dependent on the investment plans of a small number of large customers (TSMC, etc.)
• Orders are subject to volatility depending on the semiconductor business cycle