Re:ASML Buys Stake in Carl Zeiss Unit for $1.1B
by ragebol on Friday November 04, 2016 @04:11AM
(#12871037)
This is quite common in the Eindhoven area in the Netherlands where ASML is located. A lot of companies make some parts for ASML.
I'm not sure how detailed the requirements are when given to the companies but from what I understand, there still is a lot of continuous cooperation between the involved companies.
Interestingly, they also applied this trick to making their machines. For example, they need a power supply, so they design one. Then they give the specifications to multiple manufacturers which build them. If one of the manufacturers goes bankrupt, they always have backups. Also if one of them does not deliver, they have backups. As you might figured out, downtime is very expensive. These manufacturing companies have started selling parts of their machines to other companies and some of them are very successful.