AMSTERDAM: Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML said on Thursday that a US software subsidiary was the victim of corporate theft several years ago, but denied that the information stolen was a blueprint for its lithography machines.
The comments came in response to a report in the Dutch business daily newspaper Financieele Dagblad, which said technology had been stolen by high-level Chinese employees at ASML’s research and development department and ultimately leaked to a company linked to the Chinese government.
ASML said “we discovered this theft ourselves” and took immediate action. It said the technology stolen was not core to its business, and added it was still able to operate in China.
“This affected a small part of our company in Silicon Valley where software programs for machine optimalisation are developed,” ASML said in a response.
“It’s not as if a blueprint that you could use to build a lithography system is lying on the street.”
The company did not immediately answer questions as to whether Chinese employees and the Chinese government were involved, as the FD report alleged. It said information about the incident is available in public US court documents.
The FD report, which cited court documents and its own investigation, said the theft had resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. ASML had “found no hard proof of involvement of the Chinese government,” the FD reported. — Reuters
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