20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3680 Doug Dunn's Timely Rain
Feldhofen, ASML headquarters building.

After Philips moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, the original headquarters building was occupied by ASML and some of Philips' subsidiaries. However, with ASML's rapid growth, the building and its surrounding buildings have now become ASML's property.

Doug Dunn and a group of senior executives from the company came to the conference room after dinner to discuss the meeting with OneNano North America the next day.

Doug Dunn had a strange feeling about tomorrow's meeting, because the other party was a North American company, but the list of attendees seemed to be all Chinese, with no Western names.

Zhao Chang'an was already a well-known Chinese entrepreneur, which gave him a sense of absurdity that he was talking to a group of Chinese people about cooperating with a US company.

Doug Dunn became president of ASML five years ago. After taking office, he immediately set about joining the Sematech consortium, then proposed to acquire SGV, and then joined the EUV-LLC consortium. After completing the acquisition of SGV, ASML surpassed Canon and became the world's second largest lithography machine manufacturer in terms of shipments.

This embodies a great deal of Doug Dunn's hard work.

After joining the EUV-LLC alliance, North American companies such as Intel, Motorola, and AMD approached ASML to jointly develop 193nm light source lithography machines and shorter-wavelength EUV lithography machines. This clear East-West alignment also gave Doug Dunn a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

ASML has had a tumultuous history since its inception. Without Philips' continuous financial support over the years, it would have gone bankrupt long ago. However, it is precisely through this arduous and persistent effort that ASML has achieved its current success.

This gave him a mysterious sense of mission and confidence in success. So when Nikon and Canon had invested billions of dollars in 157nm dry lithography machines and still didn't dare to say it would work, he had the resolute courage to gamble on water-based immersion lithography machines.

Doug Dunn spent a lot of time persuading the politicians in the EUV-LLC alliance. He understood their ulterior motives: to sacrifice ASML as a check on Nikon and Canon.

However, in Doug Dunn's view, he never aimed to counterbalance Nikon and Canon, but rather to surpass them.

And now the most appropriate, even the only, path is DUVArFi.

ArF refers to the use of a gaseous medium, 193nm for dry applications, and i refers to the use of water or other liquids as the medium.

The difference in the 'i' indicates two completely different research and development directions.

Fortunately, the companies invested in by Intel are not stupid and did not echo the opinions of those politicians. After all, these politicians only talk the talk, while these companies need to put in real money.

However, after the research and development direction was basically determined, an even more difficult new problem arose.

It's about who pays the money and how much money they pay.

After much arguing, these American guys were only willing to put up $200 million first, asking ASML to use that $200 million to build a prototype. They would then evaluate the prototype before deciding whether to invest more money.

This opinion made the entire ASML want to spit in the face of these companies, if these shameless companies still have any shame.

Two hundred million US dollars, how can they even say that? ASML currently has 5500 orders booked until the end of this year and 750 until the end of May. These procurement funds, plus the company's own funds, amount to approximately one hundred million US dollars.

Moreover, the R&D expenses are not paid in one lump sum, but in two or three installments over a year. To put it arrogantly, as long as the company grits its teeth and squeezes it out, it's not like they can't come up with the money.

Moreover, funds can be raised through bank loans and other means.

These companies were thinking that if the $200 million investment didn't work, they would just pack up and run away. They didn't realize how much ASML would have to pay if it developed DUVArFi.

Because time is often very valuable in the high-tech field, developing in this direction means that the company will not develop any other DUVArF lithography machines within the next two years.

That means the technological gap between us and Nikon and Canon has widened even further. The gap that we managed to close with the acquisition of SGV has been widened again, perhaps even to an infinite distance.

But if these companies run away with the money, what will happen when ASML needs billions of dollars in investment?

Moreover, even if investment is secured and DUVArFi and EUVArFi are successfully developed, finding a market becomes an even more troublesome issue.

The PAS5500 was such a good machine, but after more than half a year of production, not a single one could be sold. It seemed that Philips had run out of patience and the company was about to go into liquidation. If AMD hadn't acquired MMI, ASML might have become a distant memory by now.

The reason for cooperating with companies like Intel is to require them to purchase ASML's lithography machines. If these companies decide to terminate their cooperation, what ability does ASML have to persuade investors to believe that once the DUVArFi and EUVArFi lithography machines are successfully developed, they will be able to defeat Nikon and Canon and seize a sufficient market share?
So even though the two hundred million dollars was really disgusting, ASML gritted its teeth and decided to accept it. At worst, ASML would bear the various marginal costs, and the money would only be used for the most critical R&D.

Furthermore, ASML only provides the technical architecture for DUVArFi and EUVArFi lithography machines. For the specific subsystems, it is necessary to find global partners to conduct joint and synchronous research and development.

It is conceivable that once these companies agree, they will need to invest heavily in research and development to meet the technical specifications set by ASML.

Doug Dunn didn't dare to imagine how much the partner companies would lose if Intel and its investment firms abandoned their investments halfway and ran away, which could very likely lead to the bankruptcy of a large number of related companies.

What angered Doug Dunn even more was that even though they had agreed to such harsh conditions, the companies were now arguing over who should invest how much money, and none of them were willing to spend more until they saw any results demonstrating the feasibility of the war.

As a result, the situation has reached a stalemate, and Doug Dunn has no choice but to ask Intel, which is currently the most successful company, for money. The negotiations with Intel were originally scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

However, the letter from North America gave Doug Dunn a jolt of hope, making him believe that ASML's real turning point had finally arrived.

First, OneNano North America holds a controlling stake in RIM, a globally emerging mobile company, which is also a US company. Second, OneNano North America is truly wealthy and has plenty of money, as evidenced by their extravagant charter of a Boeing 747.

Furthermore, Doug Dunn possessed a sense of destiny that defies easy explanation. ASML's ability to survive for several more years was due to the Chinese company TSMC.

Whether it can take off now depends on another young Chinese man, Zhao Chang'an, who appeared just in time when ASML needed him most.