Hacker News Reader

Comment by Confiks | Hacker News Reader

The CEO of ASML commented on this story in Nieuwsuur last Tuesday [1] (the interview starts at 22m35s). Caption file can be found here [2], which is not entirely correct in every sentence uttered, but translates pretty well.

Main points raised there:

1) This story is about four employees, who were not closely familiar to the core technology of ASML.

2) Looking at the circumstances, it seems far more likely that this was an action by ex-exployees with commercial motives, rather than government-sponsored spying.

3) ASMLs core technology simply remains in The Netherlands. An anecdote: 15 years ago ASML came with the most advanced lithography scanner of that time. It was copied in China to the last screw, but the device simply didn't work, because they lacked intricate knowledge on its actual operation.

[1] https://www.npostart.nl/nieuwsuur/16-04-2019/VPWON_1297076

[2] https://pastebin.com/Zg55qtYK

View on HN

As an addendum: The subtitles are really not to be relied upon for what he actually said. I regret pasting them. They were probably typed up on the spot and leave out the majority of the content.

Also, for example, he said "[people talk about] senior R&D employees", but it is subtitled as "a wave of employees".

The three points above are accurate however.

This mirrors how open source hardware manufacturers can do a great job even with knock offs on the market. The Prusa 3D printer is open source, but all the clones are cheaper and lower quality. The expertise that goes in to building the Prusa is what makes them worth their higher price.

> Looking at the circumstances, it seems far more likely that this was an action by ex-exployees with commercial motives, rather than government-sponsored spying

Not sure, but wasn't China their biggest client? And they didn't want to offend them, I think.

I remember reading about it vaguely?

It's easy to blame China for everything these days.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2280789-samsung-had-rol-bij-spionage-...

Google translated:

'He probably refers to Samsung. That company would have "spoused" the spies to steal the software and start their own business, thereby creating a competitor for ASML. The software is needed to set up chip machines for optimum production of electronic chips.

In 2016, Samsung became a 30 percent shareholder in Xtal, and ASML subsequently lost Samsung as a customer for this software.'

>2) Looking at the circumstances, it seems far more likely that this was an action by ex-exployees with commercial motives, rather than government-sponsored spying.

Which doesn't surprise me, as that's practically ingrained in the Chinese culture, and is another factor to take into account when hiring Chinese people.

>and is another factor to take into account when hiring Chinese people.

I understand what you mean, but it's literally illegal to take any factor into account when hiring Chinese people (literal racism). It's literally a protected status.

Is there some other way to interview and test whether someone will steal your code and send it to China, other than the fact that they're Chinese?

If you can come up with an alternative test you give everyone, it's okay. Using nationality as a shortcut is not OK.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com