A detained ex-employee of both chip machine builder ASML and chipmaker NXP is said to have ties to the Russian secret service. This is what the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD states in a message to the public prosecutor.
This revelation was first shared by the Dutch news program Nieuwsuur, which came across the official notice during a discussion by the court in Rotterdam during a pro forma hearing against the suspect. The message was reportedly received as early as December 23.
SVR contact
The contact between the ex-ASML and NXP employee and the Russians went through the latter’s foreign intelligence service SVR. Spying on high-tech in the Netherlands is anything but new, nor is contact between sources in the Netherlands and the SVR. For example, two diplomats were exposed by the AIVD in 2020 and some expelled Russian intelligence officers were later found to have specifically targeted the chip industry.
Secret documents were sent through a Google Drive folder and an intermediary. The stolen information offered insights into chip manufacturing. By itself, much of that data is not directly useful to Russia: it has no capacity at all to build advanced processors. Nevertheless, Russia wants to develop itself technologically and could also transfer or resell knowledge to China, which is a closer competitor to the west when it comes to technical knowledge for chip manufacturing. However, export restrictions prevent Beijing from using the latest ASML equipment.
Knowledge over hardware
The restrictions notwithstanding, Russia and China can gradually make real progress with enough puzzle pieces of western tech players, especially if they’re working together. For now, the Chinese are sticking to maximizing the chip equipment they do have access to, with Huawei’s Kirin 9000S chip being the most impressive final product. Nevertheless, its performance pales in comparison to competitors made by Qualcomm, Apple and MediaTek. China’s next move will be to build GPUs that count as Nvidia alternatives. That, or the nation simply smuggles the video cards into the country as is the strong suspicion of many.
Also read: ASML sets sales record in ‘transition year’: what will 2025 deliver?