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ASML says it sold 'absolutely nothing' in Europe in 2026

402 points · 900 comments · MC995

  1. ramshanker · · focus · HN ↗
    Happy to hear India got mentioned by the same executive during that conversation. We are just started buying from them. I went to Semicon India 2026, held in delhi last week. The energy was amazing. Really pleasant. all big names including ASML.
    1. roenxi · · focus · HN ↗
      It's is heartening looking at a country like India and thinking that it only seems to be a little behind China on the same trajectory. The little flashes of news as they start settling in to more interesting and high tech industries. Whatever good or evil comes out of their growing geopolitical power at least that is another billion people with a clear enough path to wealth and prosperity.
      1. rayiner · · focus · HN ↗
        India is more than a little behind China. Which is depressing, considering that the two countries were equal in GDP per capita as recently as 1990: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.thewire.in&#x2F;article&#x2F;economy&#x2F;from-1960-to-1990-india-and-china-were-at-par-how-did-it-then-overtake-us" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.thewire.in&#x2F;article&#x2F;economy&#x2F;from-1960-to-1990-india...
        1. pixelatedindex · · focus · HN ↗
          They kinda did that to themselves, but it&#x27;s slowly changing. My partner&#x27;s iPhone 16 is made in India. They really do lack waste management infrastructure though, and it&#x27;s pretty crucial for this type of manufacturing. They should also borrow the regional concentration of industries that China has done, it really does make things more efficient.
          1. roenxi · · focus · HN ↗
            [delayed]
            1. thenthenthen · · focus · HN ↗
              This happens ‘naturally’ but in China’s case I would say the majority is planned, see Shenzhen were 90%(?) of the worlds electronics are coming from. The basically send the engineering corps there, flattened the land with explosives and build a special economic zone.
              1. yorwba · · focus · HN ↗
                Guangdong had a pre-existing agglomeration of black-market capitalists because the proximity to Hong Kong made smuggling viable. From <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;andrewbatson.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;10&#x2F;20&#x2F;the-upcoming-westad-chen-book-on-chinas-long-1970s&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;andrewbatson.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;10&#x2F;20&#x2F;the-upcoming-westad-chen...:

                &quot;One example we use is the No.3 Memory of Lenin Tractor Repair Factory in Zhuhai, which already in 1973 had started repairing tractors outside the plan. It would take tractors that needed to be repaired from other units, repair them on the side of the plan, and then get payment in kind. That payment in kind was then either bartered further within Guangdong, or smuggled downriver to Hong Kong. By 1973 this unit had a Hong Kong bank account. If this had been discovered at the central level, these people would have been shot.&quot;

                Turning Shenzhen from an off-limits border area into a special economic zone made it easy for those businesses to go legit and grow, but they were already waiting in the shadows to seize that opportunity.

                There are a few more SEZs <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special_economic_zones_of_China#List_of_SEZs_and_open_coastal_cities" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special_economic_zones_of_Chin... but none did as well as Shenzhen, probably because of location factors.

                1. thenthenthen · · focus · HN ↗
                  Nice reference, thanks! And yeas, for sure proximity to Hong Kong was a big part of this! It is a financial hub, was a production hub, smuggling, triads, international hub, tax haven, the list goes on.
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