Canon tries to break ASML’s grip on chipmaking tools

Purveyors of chipmakingASMLASMLASMLTSMCEUV tools seldom attract attention. Yet many investors’ heads turned on October 13th, when Canon unveiled a new piece of kit. It is easy to see why. The Japanese company, which makes optical equipment, claims that its “nanoimprint” lithography machine can etch the very smallest transistors used in the most advanced microchips. Such feats have hitherto been the preserve of , a Dutch manufacturer of lithographic tools. Canon hopes to eat further into ’s business by eventually cranking out two-nanometre chips.The possibility of breaking ’s stranglehold on the supply chain for cutting-edge chips is intriguing. The firm has long enjoyed the biggest monopoly in the concentrated semiconductor industry. The world’s three biggest chip manufacturers—Intel, Samsung and —depend entirely on its extreme-ultraviolet () technology to produce the cutting-edge microprocessors that go into smartphones and the powerful data-centre servers on which the computing cloud lives.