From the New York Times, September 9:
ASML, the Dutch maker of semiconductor equipment, is investing about $1.5 billion in Mistral, the French A.I. start-up.
Two of Europe’s leading technology companies struck a partnership on Tuesday, with ASML, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, investing about $1.5 billion in the French artificial intelligence start-up Mistral.
ASML is one of world’s most strategically significant tech companies because of the role its equipment plays in the production of semiconductors. Mistral is seen as Europe’s most promising artificial intelligence company.
The deal, which values Mistral at 11.7 billion euros, or $13.8 billion, comes amid growing concern across Europe about dependence on American tech companies. Many European leaders fear the region’s lack of progress in technology will leave it economically lagging the United States and China.
The deal illustrates the growing links between developers of artificial intelligence and makers of semiconductors. A.I., which can be trained to perform skills by analyzing vast amounts of data, requires dizzying amounts of computing power from data centers packed with semiconductors.
ASML is at the center of that market because it is the only manufacturer of the machines capable of creating the world’s most advanced chips. One ASML machine can cost as much as $400 million.
Mistral, founded two year ago in Paris, is seen by many in Europe as the region’s best chance to compete against larger American A.I. developers like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Mistral is also facing stiff competition from the Chinese firms DeepSeek and Alibaba.
The French start-up has not raised nearly as much money as larger rivals, putting it at a financial disadvantage. Just last week, Anthropic brought in an additional $13 billion, valuing the company at $183 billion.
Under the deal announced on Tuesday, ASML invested €1.3 billion, making it Mistral’s largest shareholder with an ownership of about 11 percent. ASML’s investment was part of a larger €1.7 billion fund-raising round for Mistral. Other investors included DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed and Nvidia.
ASML, whose equipment is vital for manufacturing A.I. chips, has been at the center of the geopolitical debate over the technology. The company has grappled with trade policies that restrict the sale of its most advanced equipment to China and, more recently, tariffs on imports to the United States....
....MUCH MORE
NYT on ASML, June 5:
How the Maker of the ‘Most Complex Machine Humans Ever Created’ Is Navigating Trade Fights
A good one to have on your side. Just ask TSMC.
....At the low end Japan is already making waves.
November 2022: "Highest of High Tech: Japan Is Coming Up Fast In The Chip Equipment Business"
Taiwan is really counting on ASML to get to the next level:
April 2024: TSMC: "How We’ll Reach a 1 Trillion Transistor GPU—Advances in semiconductors are feeding the AI boom"
And China isn't napping. Also April 2024: Chips: "Huawei building vast chip equipment R&D center in Shanghai"
At the moment I don't think ASML has to worry but U.S. policymakers should be dusting off their contingency plans. They have contingency plans, right? I think they're in the same drawer as the CDC's pandemic response folder.
And our outro from November 2023's "Chips: Apple Spent Big Money To Get Taiwan Semi's New 3nm (AAPL; TSM)":
Oh to be smart enough to outcompete ASML in the lithography biz:
Today ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2023 third-quarter results.
Q3 net sales of €6.7 billion, gross margin of 51.9%, net income of €1.9 billionAnd have the premier manufacturer bragging about using your product:
TSMC says it will have advanced ASML chipmaking tool in 2024With only one small cloud on the horizon:
Canon’s Advanced Chip Machines to Cost a Fraction of ASML’s Best
