Ex-Engineers Challenge CEO’s Claim: Is China Really Behind in the Chip Race? | PRIMENEWSNOW

In a secure lab in Shenzhen, Chinese researchers have accomplished what many thought impossible: creating a prototype of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine. Dubbed “China’s Manhattan Project,” this machine is capable of producing the advanced semiconductor chips essential for AI, smartphones, and sophisticated weaponry.

This achievement, as reported by Reuters, suggests that ASML’s CEO may have underestimated China’s capabilities in the semiconductor field. The prototype, completed in early 2025 and currently undergoing tests, was reportedly developed by former ASML engineers who reverse-engineered the company’s technology. While ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet claimed in April that China would take “many, many years” to develop such technology, recent reports indicate that Beijing might be closer to chip independence than previously thought.

Reverse Engineering: The Role of Former ASML Engineers

The machine, which occupies nearly an entire factory floor, is operational and successfully generates extreme ultraviolet light, though it has yet to produce functional chips. The Chinese government aims to produce working chips by 2028, though insiders suggest 2030 is more realistic-still ahead of many analysts’ predictions.

This breakthrough is the result of a six-year government initiative, likened to China’s version of the Manhattan Project. Huawei plays a crucial role in coordinating efforts across numerous companies and state research institutes, involving thousands of engineers.

Recruitment Tactics: Luring ASML Veterans

According to Reuters, the team includes recently retired Chinese-born former ASML engineers, recruited with signing bonuses ranging from $420,000 to $700,000. One engineer received a fake ID along with his bonus, discovering other former colleagues working under aliases to maintain secrecy.

The project is part of China’s semiconductor strategy, overseen by Xi Jinping’s confidant Ding Xuexiang, who leads the Communist Party’s Central Science and Technology Commission. “The goal is for China to eventually produce advanced chips using entirely domestic machines,” a source told Reuters.

“China aims to completely remove the United States from its supply chains.”

ASML’s Hold on EUV Technology

EUV machines are essential for creating cutting-edge semiconductor chips used in AI, smartphones, and military systems. ASML is currently the sole company with mastery over this technology, with machines priced around $250 million each. The company stated it took nearly two decades and billions of euros to produce its first commercially available chips in 2019.

ASML CEO Fouquet has consistently downplayed China’s semiconductor capabilities. In December 2024, he told Dutch media that China is 10 to 15 years behind the West in chipmaking. “By restricting EUV exports, China will lag 10 to 15 years behind,” he said. In February 2025, he told The Wall Street Journal that export controls remain effective despite advances like DeepSeek’s AI model.

“Without the most advanced technology, you can’t compete with those who have it,” he insisted. The U.S. has blocked ASML from selling EUV systems to China since 2018, with restrictions expanding under the Biden administration in 2022. No EUV system has been sold to a Chinese customer, ASML confirmed to Reuters.

However, export restrictions have struggled to curb China’s ambitions. The country has been salvaging components from older ASML machines and sourcing parts through secondary markets to build its prototype, with intermediary companies sometimes obscuring the final buyer.

International banks frequently auction older semiconductor fabrication equipment, with auctions in China selling older ASML lithography equipment as recently as October 2025, according to listings on Alibaba Auction. ASML told Reuters it “vigilantly guards” trade secrets and has “successfully pursued legal action in response to the theft of trade secrets.” The company won an $845 million judgment in 2019 against a former Chinese engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, but the defendant filed for bankruptcy and continues to operate in Beijing with Chinese government support, according to court documents.

The Shenzhen prototype indicates that China’s most significant breakthrough in the semiconductor race may have come not from bypassing Western export controls, but from the very engineers who developed the technology those controls aimed to protect.