US China AI feud leaves ASML walking a tightrope between sales and geopolitics

4:08 AM · July 17, 2026

ASML is walking a tightrope between commercial demand and geopolitical pressure, according to CNBC, as the Dutch chipmaking equipment maker's chief financial officer said China will contribute roughly 20 percent of its revenue across all of 2026. ASML does not ship its most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China after years of export restrictions, but it continues to sell less advanced deep ultraviolet machines there, with Chinese sales of that equipment reaching 2.9 billion euros, or about 3.3 billion dollars, in the first six months of 2026, roughly 16 percent of total revenue. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has conveyed concern directly to ASML's senior leadership that one of its machines, or critical components, may have reached China in violation of export controls, adding fresh pressure on a relationship that was already strained. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has separately proposed legislation that would cut off ASML's remaining sales of deep ultraviolet machines to Chinese chip companies entirely, a bill that sent the stock down 6 percent in April when it was first introduced. The confrontation over ASML's equipment, widely regarded as some of the most strategically important hardware in the global chip supply chain, has entered what CNBC describes as a decisive and consequential phase, with the company caught between an AI driven demand boom it wants to serve and a geopolitical environment that increasingly limits where it can sell.