Previously, in its 2022 annual report released in February, the Dutch company said a former employee working in its China office was involved in “unlawful appropriation of data related to proprietary technology” that could lead to export control violations.
ASML CEO Peter Wennink described the incident as “a piece of a puzzle that you don’t have a clue about,” and the Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company did not disclose what data was stolen. Bloomberg reported at the time that the theft targeted a chip machine repository that included details of ASML’s advanced machinery.
Earlier this week, the Dutch newspaper NRC reported that the perpetrator continued to work for US-sanctioned Chinese telecom giant Huawei after leaving ASML.
The Dutch company said the illegal activity had no significant impact on its business and confirmed that it had taken security measures.
Huawei has been barred from accessing advanced chip technology that uses US components or patents since 2019. TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has also stopped accepting new orders from the mainland giant.
Under additional export controls imposed by the Dutch government, ASML will be banned from shipping some of its less advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems to China starting next January.
Limited access to lithography machines has become a major obstacle to China's goal of chip self-sufficiency.
In August, Huawei quietly launched its 5G smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, which runs on an advanced 7-nanometer (nm) processor. Experts say the chip may have been manufactured using a DUV machine rather than EUV, which is used to make 7nm chips at commercial scale.
Amid rising geopolitical tensions, ASML and other chip-related companies have previously accused Chinese entities of intellectual property (IP) theft and talent poaching.
In 2022, ASML said a Beijing-based company had marketed products in China that “likely” infringed ASML’s intellectual property rights.
In 2021, Taiwan’s economic minister accused Beijing of stepping up efforts to gain access to advanced technology amid the Sino-US tech rivalry. Last year, the Taiwanese government began enforcing regulations that barred Chinese companies from recruiting top talent in sensitive areas such as chips.
More recently, the US government opened an investigation into Chinese semiconductor company Innoscience, after a US competitor accused the company of hiring two former employees, including an engineer, to steal secrets and infringe on the company's patents.
(According to SCMP)
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