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ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

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Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#241

Post by detaro »

rivo wrote: post #139

A few highlights from a conversation with a friend who works for Zeiss and regularly deals with ASML (take this with a grain of salt, I may have misunderstood some of it and he also may not be an expert in all of these areas): - The lenses (actually mirrors for EUV) only demagnify by a factor of 4. So your wafer template is already extremely small and costs millions to produce. - 13.5nm is pretty much the smallest wa…

> Others have not invested into EUV

Not entirely correct AFAIK. EUV is something the industry pretty widely worked on, ASML just have the best tech in the end.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#242

Post by Fronzie »

teekert wrote: post #125
as1mov wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda off-topic but what's it like working at ASML? They are hiring for a lot of software roles at the moment. I've been mulling about applying there but from the outside it looks very bureaucratic (at least that's what the Glassdoor reviews seem to indicate).

I applied there, they asked me what I would do if there was too much work for the week. Of course I answered I would just work nights, np. No, they said: Go to your team lead tell her/him you can do one thing and discuss what to choose. They don’t want people getting burned out, they are too important. I liked that.

You have to clock your hours there and are pushed to take time off for any overhours you have made. On the other hand, customer escalations are expected to be handled relatively quickly.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#243

Post by Fronzie »

burntoutfire wrote: post #214
mark_mart wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a contractor who works for them, but have lots of friends working as direct employee. (Netherlands, software engineer mostly) They pay you 12+1 salaries (1=you get half of your salary as bonus 2 times per year, as vacation bonus). You get 40 days of vacation (Netherlands has 25 days of vacation standard, %99 of companies)so people are very relaxed. ASML is able relocate you from another country, moving all your…

Thanks for elaborating on all the perks, but frankly your posts misses the most important bit of info, namely the salary ranges. I don't care about vacations or relocation package if the salary is mediocre and I have to work there until I'm old (i.e. if they don't pay enough for me to save money and retire early/earlish).

The salary is typically 10% higher than the other big companies in the area (Philips, NXP and Thermo Fisher).

Your expectations about early retirement are probably not met by what they offer.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#244

Post by utor »

ethbr0 wrote: post #237
MichaelZuo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why steal if money is no object? If there truly was enough motivation in whatever circles these decisions get made in, they could just offer all the top folks at ASML an eight figure or nine figure salary package. The fact that this hasn't happened yet suggests that it's not as critical as it's made to sound like, or at least those key decision makers don't believe so.

Ironically, the very thing that everyone assumes will allow China to dominate appears to be hamstringing them: politics. China can say they have a priority on domestic semiconductor production, and they can throw obscene amounts of money at the problem. But ultimately, something that takes 10+ years to develop isn't appetizing for China's current political climate. It needs to be the best, yesterday. Consequently, th…

>national government commands, local supplies are about the worst of all possible worlds for high knowledge, long lead time, heavy research industries

Yet DARPA and company are behind like half of modern IT technology.

>Which is why you saw the Soviets do pretty well at heavy industry, but not so well at computers

Soviets were fairly behind the US in electronics to begin with, and they had massive production problems everywhere, including heavy industry(turns out that setting every price and production quota from Moscow wasn't really effective). It's just that heavy industry was easier.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#245

Post by utor »

thephyber wrote: post #180
ren_engineer wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America pays the price for its short sighted hubris chasing profits and thinking we could turn China into a liberal democracy if we threw enough money at them

This just comes off as a “I can see the problems with that approach from 40 years ago because my hindsight is 20/20” kind of statement. It’s also worth considering that the cost of living in the US has been lowered because China has been the factory for our WalMart / Target / IKEA goods. If we didn’t open up China to the US / WTO markets, the world would be a very different place and that counterfactual is pretty dif…

>has been lowered because China

Savings from China trade are fairly trivial, calculated in a few hundreds dollars per family per year. And if the US need a cheap factory hub there's Mexico.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#246

Post by brailsafe »

teekert wrote: post #224
brailsafe wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course I answered I would just work nights Was this intended as a joke or would you really work nights just because there was too much work?

If it happens once or twice a year, I still wouldn't be bothered by it. In fact, I'm such a procrastinator that I sometimes do it because of my own tendency to postpone things.

I love working at night, but not in addition to working the previous day. Has a bad impact on everything unless it's truly a one-off emergency or something.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#247

Post by cutemonster »

achow wrote: post #212
janmo wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Also in the thread, ASML has a monopoly on this tech. Others have not invested into EUV and by now, it's pretty much impossible for anybody to catch up. Having basically the entire tech economy relying on one unique supplier is just insane. I hope their production facilities are very well protected and decentralised otherwise one natural disaster in the Netherlands or an Unabomber type terrorist attack and the se…

Aren't they system integrator and get their supplies from thousands of vendors worldwide. That actually makes them disaster proof.

If so, I wonder how many (if any) of those vendors are single points of failures?

> Aren't they system integrator

But the tweets mentioned ASML bought suppliers with unique technology that no one else has

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#248

Post by mcspiff »

analyst74 wrote: post #185
ren_engineer wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bribing isn't paying higher wages, it would be paying a huge amount of money for somebody to stay at ASML as a spy and giving you crucial information for money

Isn't it better to just hire them, so they bring you all their years of technical and operational knowledge? Of course, it requires the new external hires be given enough influence and autonomy. It remains to be seen if Chinese firms are able to integrate international talents effectively.

Not if you it want a 1:1 duplicate

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#249

Post by cutemonster »

InvaderFizz wrote: post #206
rivo wrote: post #139

A few highlights from a conversation with a friend who works for Zeiss and regularly deals with ASML (take this with a grain of salt, I may have misunderstood some of it and he also may not be an expert in all of these areas): - The lenses (actually mirrors for EUV) only demagnify by a factor of 4. So your wafer template is already extremely small and costs millions to produce. - 13.5nm is pretty much the smallest wa…

> - He said they're not very affected by the chip shortage My guess as to why is that they probably have a very predictable/steady chip supply pipeline and are low enough volume and high enough margin that they can easily outbid anyone and it wouldn't have a meaningful impact on the bottom line.

I guess they can get good deals with their customers too,... Edit: see another comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28270545

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#250

Post by cutemonster »

teekert wrote: post #225
sumedh wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use this question to show your strength, you can say if its a one off situation you will go the distance but if its happening regularly then you will try to raise questions like why are projects always going into crunch mode, are we not estimating the tasks properly etc. This shows that you are a team player but also willing to push back.

I indeed answered with something like this, still, they wouldn't have it.

Did it seem to you as if they "held that against you"?, I mean, that you said you'd work (a lot?) extra? Maybe they could look at that as indicating some lack of life experience,

Or was their intention with that part of the interview primarily informational, I mean, that they wanted you to get to know their company better?

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