(337 pages)
ASML today is a world-famous company. Its core product is photolithography machines, used to print intricate patterns on silicon wafers, a key step in chip manufacturing. ASML is the sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, enabling the production of smaller, faster, and more powerful microchips. Largest tech company in Europe.
Their machines are critical to production of pretty much every single advanced chip - for AI or whatnot. I don't understand all this so well, I just read that price of newest machine is nearly $400 million per unit.
I'm deeply interested in the company because I was lead lawyer for ASML's US operations (based in Phoenix) from 1991 - 1996. It was fascinating work at the time. The newly-released (1991) PAS 5500 wafer stepper cost an astounding $1 million per unit. We were doing purchase agreements with Micron and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). And a new customer - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). It was interesting to read that many 5500s continue in operation to this day. I'm wondering about the service contracts we wrote for those machines in the 1990s! ASML's big competitor was Nikon. Karl Zeiss lenses were a big selling point, that was a new relationship for ASML when I was involved.
My then-law firm had initiated the relationship with ASML in approximately 1984. ASML was a pure Dutch start-up funded by Philips (big Dutch electronics company), but didn't fit well with Philips. Tech entrepreneur Arthur del Prado - founder and CEO of Dutch corporation Advanced Semiconductor Materials International (ASMI) - talked Philips into a 50-50 joint venture with ASMI. My then-law firm already represented ASMI in the US, so took over the joint venture (soon named ASML).
Arthur del Prado is a guy I spent quite a bit of time with, both in the Netherlands and in the US. An entrepreneur with a vision for ASMI of developing wafer processing machines that would cover every step of the manufacturing process (from the "front end" - high science devices that mostly made the chips - to the "back end" - incrementally less sophisticated machines that cut the wafers into chips and then packaged them and attached lead "wires"). ASML would have filled a key gap in the ASMI front-end product line. But ASMI had too ambitious of a goal, and was running out of money - so it reluctantly sold out its interest in ASML in 1988 (back to Philips). A decade later, ASML alone - concentrating on a single key wafer processing machine - was worth more than all of ASMI put together. (ASML considered changing its name - it didn't like the "ASM" portion of the name once the ASMI relationship had ended - but finally decided that the confusion and hassle wasn't worth it.) (ASMI did have some product hits, including a wafer stepper that processed every single Pentium chip manufactured by Intel.)
Even though ASMI no longer had any ownership interest in ASML, we in Phoenix were able to continue representing both companies. Per above, 35-year old me took over the relationship in 1991 with both ASMI and ASML.
The book discusses ASML hiring Peter Wennink as CFO in 1997, and how he became effectively co-CEO, just hitting retirement now. Wennink was a Deloitte partner and I got to know him in that capacity. Philips listed ASML shares on Nasdaq starting in 1995. I was looking to leave my law firm, and Wennink asked if I was interested in taking a general counsel role with ASML (he liked my securities law experience in addition to general familiarity with the company). I didn't want to take on the commitment - which would have involved lots of travel to the Netherlands - and I'm not sure they even wanted someone like me - after I ended the discussion, they hired a more junior person for US operations and he has worked out great. (It also wasn't clear to me how things would work with the corporate center of gravity still in the Netherlands. I ended up moving to Employee Solutions as GC/SVP (we loved titles!))
The book also discusses the hiring of Doug Dunn as ASML CEO at the same time - I got to know him, liked him, he didn't last nearly as long as Wennink.
The book goes on to describe ASML's ascension to world-class status - most of that happened long after I no longer worked with the company - the discussion of TSMC and ASML in Arizona in recent years is of course very interesting (CHIPS Act as part of the story). Also the political issues have gotten quite hot, with the US in particular interested in preventing China from getting its hands on ASML's technology. This was happening during both the Trump and Biden administrations, probably still is.
A good read. ASML's product is magic, unbelievable stuff.
