ASML veterans made the breakthrough in Shenzhen possible. Without their intimate knowledge of the technology, reverse-engineering the machines would’ve been nearly impossible.
Their recruitment was part of an aggressive drive China launched in 2019 for semiconductor experts working abroad — with signing bonuses starting at 3M - 5M yuan ($420K - $700K) and home-purchase subsidies.
Recruits included Lin Nan (林楠), ASML's former head of light source technology, whose team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Optics has filed 8 patents on EUV light sources in 18 months.
Some naturalized citizens of other countries were given 
passports and allowed to maintain dual citizenship, which China officially prohibits.
ASML's most advanced EUV systems are roughly the size of a school bus and weigh 180 tons. After failed attempts to replicate its size, the prototype inside the Shenzhen lab became many times larger to improve its power. The prototype is crude compared to ASML's machines but operational enough for testing.
The prototype lags behind ASML's machines largely because researchers have struggled to obtain optical systems like those from 
Carl Zeiss, a key ASML supplier.
The machines fire lasers at molten tin 50,000 times per second, generating plasma at 200,000 degrees Celsius. The light is focused using mirrors that take months to produce. China's top research institutes have played key roles in developing homegrown alternatives.
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIOMP) achieved a breakthrough in integrating EUV light into the prototype's optical system, enabling it to become operational in early 2025, though the optics still require significant refinement.
In a March online recruitment call on its website, the institute was offering "uncapped" salaries to PhD lithography researchers and research grants worth up to 4M yuan ($560K) plus 1M yuan ($140K) in personal subsidies.
China will have achieved "meaningful progress” if the “light source has enough power, is reliable, and doesn’t generate too much contamination.”
"No doubt this is technically feasible, it's just a question of timeline. China has the advantage that commercial EUV now exists, so they aren't starting from zero."
To get the required parts, China is salvaging components from older ASML machines and sourcing parts from ASML suppliers through secondhand markets.
Networks of intermediary companies are sometimes used to mask the ultimate buyer.
Export-restricted components from Japan’s Nikon and Canon are being used for the prototype.
International banks regularly auction older semiconductor fabrication equipment. Auctions in China sold older ASML lithography equipment as recently as Oct 2025, according to a review of listings on Alibaba Auction.
A team of ~100 recent university graduates is focused on reverse-engineering components from both EUV and DUV lithography machines.
Each worker's desk is filmed by an individual camera to document their efforts to disassemble and reassemble parts — key to China's lithography efforts. Staffers who successfully reassemble a component receive bonuses.
While the EUV project is run by the government, Huawei is involved in every step of the supply chain from chip design and fabrication equipment to manufacturing and final integration into products like smartphones.
CEO Ren Zhengfei briefs senior Chinese leaders on progress.
Huawei has deployed employees to offices, fabrication plants, and research centers across the country for the effort. Employees assigned to semiconductor teams often sleep on-site and are barred from returning home during the work week, with phone access restricted for teams handling more sensitive tasks.
Inside Huawei, few employees know the scope of this work. “The teams are kept isolated from each other to protect the confidentiality of the project. They don't know what the other teams work on.”
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Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
A team of Chinese researchers from Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, led by Lin Nan (林楠) — previously ASML’s head of light source technology in Netherlands, have cracked a barrier to the home-grown production of advanced chipsby
Show more Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, led by Lin Nan (林楠) — previously ASML’s head of light source technology in Netherlands, have cracked a barrier to the home-grown production of advanced chipsby