The Netherlands is making a direct pitch to Washington to keep ASML’s chipmaking tools moving into China. Dutch trade minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma has traveled to the US to argue against the MATCH Act, a bill that would widen export restrictions on semiconductor equipment and hit the one company Europe does not want to see squeezed any further.
That company is ASML, the continent’s most valuable listed firm and the only maker of the lithography machines used to produce the most advanced AI chips. China already accounts for 19% of ASML’s net equipment sales, so a tougher US line would not be an abstract policy tweak; it would land straight on one of Europe’s biggest industrial assets. For a company that sits at the center of the chip supply chain, every export rule becomes a geopolitics story fast.
What the MATCH Act would change
The bill would extend existing limits beyond advanced EUV systems and pull immersion deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography into the ban as well. That matters because ASML has said China can still buy only older-generation DUV gear, the kind that has been on the market for about ten years. In other words, the proposal would go after the fallback equipment that has been left standing after earlier restrictions.
The MATCH Act was introduced in April and has not yet been voted on in either chamber of Congress. Sjoerdsma’s visit is an early warning shot, but it is also a reminder that Washington is no longer debating whether to tighten chip controls; it is deciding how far down the product stack to push them. If the bill advances, ASML will not be the only company watching nervously, but it is the one with the most to lose.
Why the Netherlands is fighting back now
For the Dutch government, this is about more than one exporter’s quarterly numbers. The United States has already used export controls to try to slow China’s access to leading-edge chips and the tools needed to make them, and allies have repeatedly been pulled into that effort whether they like it or not. The Netherlands is trying to protect ASML’s remaining sales while also avoiding a precedent that could turn a narrow policy into a much broader ban.
The political logic is familiar from previous rounds of chip sanctions: once a gate closes on the newest gear, pressure quickly shifts to the older machines that still keep Chinese fabs running. That is the real fight here, and it is why a Dutch minister is in Washington making the case that a company built around precision engineering should not become collateral damage in a tech cold war.
ASML’s China exposure and the next move
ASML’s China business is sizable enough to matter, but not so large that the company can dictate policy. That leaves the firm and its home government trying to preserve what is still permitted while the US Congress considers whether to widen the net again. The next question is simple: will lawmakers stop at advanced lithography, or decide that even the older generation is too useful for Beijing to keep buying?