China’s ‘Manhattan Project’ sparks AI chip fears
Former engineers of semiconductor giant ASML reportedly used parts from old machines for a prototype
It has been described as China’s “Manhattan Project.” A reference to the ultra-secret plan to develop the atomic bomb by the United States and its allies in World War II. But this time it involves winning the AI chip conflict, which will drive the new age of weapon systems.
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built a prototype machine. Its aim is to design cutting-edge semiconductors that will power advanced artificial intelligence technology, the Reuters News Agency exclusively reported this week.
The extreme ultraviolet lithography system will etch “tiny circuits onto silicon wafers” and has been developed by former engineers of the Dutch semiconductor giant ASML. Many “worked under fake names,” using parts from the company’s older machines.
“Sounds like a massive security failure by ASML and the Dutch intelligence services,” Bill Bishop, the founder of Sinocism, posted on X, formerly Twitter, in response to the news.
Chips with everything:
- ASML translates into Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithograph, and stands at the forefront of producing crucial circuits used in smartphones to smart weapons.
- Based in Veldhoven just outside the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the company sits at the heart of a technological Cold War between China and the West.
China’s espionage ecosystem is systemic and strategic.
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Delve deeper: By using beams of extreme ultraviolet light, ASML creates patterns on circuits “thousands of times thinner than a human hair onto silicon wafers.” The smaller the circuits, the more powerful the chips. Perfect in the artificial intelligence battle.
Between the lines: “ASML is the foundation on which much of the AI boom – indeed much of the tech industry – has been built over the past few years. It manufactures the machines needed to produce the most advanced chips for [global leader] Nvidia,” Bloomberg reported.
Big picture: China’s President Xi Jinping has made semiconductor self-sufficiency a national priority in his goal for global high-tech dominance. What has not been public until now “is how concentrated and secretive the most advanced work” has become.
Bottom line: “For more than a decade, control over [the making of] advanced chips has rested on a narrow choke point … that control is under pressure,” Tech Wire Asia stated.
China Factor comment: Beijing has yet to comment on this latest development. But China does have a history of ‘technology theft.’ As the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation warned last month, “China’s espionage ecosystem is systemic and strategic.”