Chinese scientists have built a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, smartphones and weapons central to the military dominance of the West

Beijing has built semiconductor chips which the US has been trying to prevent over years. In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, smartphones and weapons central to the military dominance of the West, according to Reuters.  

The testing is still undergoing but got completed in early 2025, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was originally built by a team of engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines or EUVs, according to two people with knowledge of the project.

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China has been the hub of producing chips and semiconductors and the machine is operational and successful in generating extreme ultraviolet rays.  

In April, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that China would need “many, many years” to develop such technology. But the existence of this prototype, reported by Reuters for the first time, suggests China may be years closer to achieving semiconductor independence than analysts anticipated.

China still lacks and possesses some technological challenges in replicating the optical systems which the Western markets produce.  

The availability of parts from older ASML machines on secondary markets has allowed China to build a domestic prototype, with the government setting a goal of producing working chips on the prototype by 2028, according to the two people.

But people who are still working on the project and are closer to it say that the completion targets to 2030.  

The project falls under the country’s semiconductor strategy, which state media has identified as being run by Xi Jinping confidant Ding Xuexiang, who heads the Communist Party’s Central Science and Technology Commission.

“It makes sense that companies would want to replicate our technology, but doing so is no small feat,” ASML told Reuters in a statement.

China’s biggest project 

The team includes recently retired, Chinese-born former ASML engineers and scientists—prime recruitment targets because they possess sensitive technical knowledge but face fewer professional constraints after leaving the company, the people said.

Two current ASML employees of Chinese nationality in the Netherlands told Reuters they have been approached by recruiters from Huawei since at least 2020.

ASML told Reuters that it “vigilantly guards” trade secrets and confidential information.

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“While ASML cannot control or restrict where former employees work, all employees are bound by the confidentiality clauses in their contracts,” the company said, and it has “successfully pursued legal action in response to the theft of trade secrets.”

An engineer said that the project was the biggest surprise and identification of brilliant minds. He recognised other former ASML colleagues who were also working under aliases and was instructed to use their fake names at work to maintain secrecy, the person said.

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