The Only Maker of EUVWide moat

The single most important fact about ASML is the bluntest: it holds one hundred percent of the EUV lithography market¹, because it is the only company that makes an EUV machine. Nikon and Canon, ASML's historic rivals in older lithography, never cracked EUV and effectively conceded the leading edge²; ASML stands entirely alone. This is monopoly in its textbook form — not a dominant share to be defended against challengers, but the absence of any challenger at all in the one technology that makes advanced chips possible.

A hundred-percent share of an essential, irreplaceable product is the strongest competitive position a company can occupy, and it confers everything that flows downstream: pricing power (the customer has no alternative), priority in a shortage (ASML decides who gets machines and when), and a seat at the center of the entire semiconductor industry's planning. When your product is the sole gateway to the future of computing, you do not compete for the business — the business comes to you, hat in hand, and waits its turn. That is ASML's position, and it has held it since EUV became viable.