China Builds Its Own EUV Machine: Inside the Bid to Break ASML's Monopoly

It's the machine that sits at the top of the entire technology economy: the EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography system needed to print the world's most advanced chips. Today, exactly one company — the Netherlands' ASML — can build one. In 2026, China is trying to change that.

The Shenzhen Prototype

Chinese scientists have reportedly built a prototype EUV lithography machine in a high-security lab in Shenzhen. Key details from reporting:

• The prototype was completed in early 2025 and has now entered testing.
• It was developed by a team largely composed of former ASML engineers.
• It uses a Laser-Induced Discharge Plasma (LDP) light source — a different approach from ASML's laser-produced-plasma design — developed at the Harbin Institute of Technology, reportedly hitting 100W–150W in mid-2025.
• Efforts are associated with Huawei and SMEE (China's domestic lithography champion).

The Big Caveat

Here's the honest framing, because the headlines oversell it: the prototype can generate EUV light, but it has not yet produced fully functional chips. Generating EUV light is a genuine milestone — but it's a long way from a production tool that reliably prints billions of transistors at commercial yield.

China's government target is producing chips on a homegrown EUV machine around 2028; more realistic industry timelines point closer to 2030.

The Hardest Problem: Optics

The biggest remaining challenge isn't the light source — it's the high-precision optical systems. ASML's mirrors, supplied by Germany's Carl Zeiss, are among the most precisely manufactured objects on Earth. Replicating that optical stack is where would-be rivals have always stalled.

Why It Matters Anyway

Even a slow Chinese EUV program changes the strategic math. Export controls are built on the assumption that China cannot make its own advanced-node tools. A working prototype — even a limited one — signals that the assumption has an expiry date.

The Bottom Line

China's EUV prototype is real, important, and years away from mattering commercially. It's a marathon milestone, not a finish line — but it's the clearest sign yet that ASML's monopoly won't last forever.

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