| > I don't see why EUV could not be stolen > Everything, even very advanced technology, can be reverse engineered, especially if you already know conceptually what it does This isn't true. Maybe for software it is. Manufacturing is one of the hardest stages, and China lacks tooling for the ultra-high precision engineering required to actually implement this process. It's kind of like building a nuclear bomb - conceptually it's easy. Hell, the first nuke was dropped before the microwave oven was commercially available. The real challenge is manufacturing the damn thing. Refining all of that uranium is not an easy task - even today. China has spent billions of USD equivalent trying to copy EUV. They have had access to EUV installations and fully disassembled them (funny story: they broke it putting it back together). They are highly motivated, they have a ton of money, and frankly, they're no a bunch of dummies. And yet, they still don't have it. (fwiw i think they will by the end of 2030) |