I wrote a social‑media post on 2026‑02‑10 to highlight how two “hidden giants” – Cymer and Zeiss – power ASML’s $200 M+ EUV lithography machines that enable AI‑grade chips.
ASML’s EUV system costs $200 M+ per machine.
Cymer fires a laser at molten tin droplets 50,000 times per second to generate EUV plasma.
Zeiss’s mirrors are so flat that if scaled to the size of Germany the largest bump would be just 0.1 mm.
I deliberately emphasized their hidden status to illustrate the depth of the semiconductor supply chain and asked readers to suggest other “invisible giants.”