Tech
The US says ASML’s top chip tool may be in China. ASML says it isn’t
According to Bloomberg, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has, in a series of recent meetings, told senior ASML executives he’s concerned that one of the Dutch chipmaker’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines — the EUV systems that are the only tools on Earth capable of printing the most advanced semiconductor patterns — may have ended up in China. That would be a major breach of export controls that have barred ASML from selling EUV to China since the first Trump administration.
It’s a serious claim. Senior administration officials told Bloomberg they have evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment to China, though they’ve declined, repeatedly, to show it — to Bloomberg or, apparently, to ASML itself. The company says no such machine exists in China and has never existed there. The Commerce Department didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s questions about whether it has evidence of an actual EUV system on Chinese soil.
You might think this isn’t worth paying attention to if you’re outside the chip industry, but it is. ASML is a Dutch company most people have never heard of, but it is, by a wide margin, the most important company in the global AI buildout that isn’t named Nvidia or one of the hyperscalers. It makes the only machines on the planet capable of EUV lithography — the process of printing the microscopic circuit patterns that define the most advanced chips.
Every cutting-edge processor made by TSMC, the foundry behind Nvidia’s and Apple’s chips, depends on ASML tools that took the company roughly two decades and untold billions to develop. There is, at present, no second supplier. That monopoly has made ASML Europe’s most valuable public company, with a market capitalization that has been trading in the neighborhood of $700 billion as of this week, up sharply over the past year on the back of insatiable AI-driven chip demand.
That scale is exactly why the China question matters so much. If even one EUV machine made it into Chinese hands, it would represent one of the most consequential breaches of the export-control regime the U.S. has built over the past several years to keep advanced AI capability out of Beijing’s military and industrial base.
I sat down with ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet six weeks ago, well before this story broke, and asked him directly about the China question.
Fouquet told me ASML tracks every machine it has ever shipped — they’re either in active use with monitored customers or have been dismantled and returned to the company. He said the firm built an internal firewall years ago: employees who can access EUV technology, documentation, and training are walled off from those who can’t, and ASML’s China-based staff sit on the wrong side of that wall by design. He argued the only reason ASML could build an EUV machine at all was that 80% of it already existed from decades of prior knowledge, and that solving the one genuinely new problem — generating EUV light itself — took 20 years on its own. His broader point seemed to be that you can’t reverse-engineer a machine you’ve never had, and nobody in China has had one.
There’s also a simpler commercial logic that cuts against the idea that ASML would risk its export license to quietly arm a Chinese customer. ASML does sell older-generation deep ultraviolet tools to China — gear it first shipped a decade ago — but Fouquet framed that explicitly as a protective calculation, not a loophole. The idea, he suggested, is that it keeps enough of a generational gap that customers can still do business — but without manufacturing its own future competitor. ASML expects roughly 20% of its 2026 revenue to come from already-permitted sales to China. Risking the EUV ban entirely would put that revenue, and the company’s standing as the most valuable monopoly in European industry, on the line over a single illegal sale.
None of this proves the allegations are false. The government hasn’t yet made its evidence public, and it’s worth withholding judgment until it does.
The Commerce Department, under Lutnick’s leadership, agreed late last year to put up to $150 million of taxpayer money into xLight, a startup developing a next-generation light-source technology that’s been written about as a long-term challenge to the core of ASML’s EUV monopoly. xLight’s own CEO told me last year that the company sees itself as a future partner to ASML, not a rival, building hardware meant to plug into ASML’s machines rather than replace them. When I put that framing to Fouquet in May, he was polite about it but unconvinced; ASML, he made clear, doesn’t see itself as needing xLight’s technology to keep its lead.
Does that have anything to do with why Lutnick is suddenly pressing ASML on EUV? Nothing public connects the two. It could be entirely unrelated. But a federal official scrutinizing a monopoly while his own agency has money riding on a startup angling to improve that monopoly’s core technology is worth examining.
xLight isn’t the only outside bet on the future of lithography. Peter Thiel — who has his own long-running ties to Trump’s political orbit — has backed Substrate, a separate startup explicitly pursuing its own EUV-rival technology, with ambitions to compete with ASML more directly than xLight says it intends to.
As Bloomberg notes, a bipartisan bill moving through Congress would go much further than EUV — it calls for an effective ban on all of ASML’s deep ultraviolet (DUV) shipments to China, the less advanced lithography tools that account for roughly a fifth of the company’s expected 2026 revenue. The bill cleared a key committee in April, and the Trump administration hasn’t taken a formal position on it.
Pictured above: ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet
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Tech
‘Queer Eye’ life coach Karamo Brown launches Kē, a wellness app featuring his AI digital clone
Karamo Brown, famous for his pep talks on Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” has jumped into the wellness and AI space with his new app, Kē. After spending a year and a half focusing on his own journey — from fitness and nutrition to meditation, sobriety, relationships, and personal growth — Brown wants to help others do the same.
Kē offers a slew of features designed to support users, including personalized fitness plans that cater to users’ existing workout equipment and schedules, as well as nutrition guidance by suggesting meal plans based on the food users have at home. Users have the flexibility to request adjustments to their fitness and meal plans through an AI chatbot, making it easy to customize their experience. Plus, each workout is paired with guided instructional videos to ensure correct form.
On the mental health front, Kē includes a meditation section with videos targeting various emotions, helping users manage stress and anxiety. There’s also a community section for users to engage in supportive groups focused on shared experiences, such as sobriety or wellness discussions.
But what really sets Kē apart is its “AI Karamo” feature that lets users talk with a digital version of Karamo. They can ask questions and get advice in real time, delivered in his voice.
Powered by AI startup Delphi, the clone pulls from all sorts of material from Brown — like interviews, podcast episodes, and other clips — to ensure it represents him as authentically as possible. (Arnold Schwarzenegger also has his own digital clone with Delphi.)
“My best friend and sister to this day still talk to the AI clone when they can’t get hold of me,” Brown told TechCrunch.
Brown’s new app reflects a bigger trend, where more celebrities are getting on board with AI. For example, stars like Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have partnered with ElevenLabs to license their voices for digital replicas.
However, many celebrities are publicly expressing their concerns and taking action against the rise of AI, particularly regarding the unauthorized use of their likenesses and voices in creating digital clones. There has also been a bit of concern about fans forming one-sided emotional attachments to celebrity chatbots.
Brown emphasizes that Kē isn’t meant to replace real relationships; instead, it’s a tool to aid in personal development and encourage people to reach out for real support when needed.
“If someone is struggling with a sensitive issue, it can direct them toward appropriate resources and remind them to seek support from real people in their lives … At the end of the day, this is meant to be a tool that helps people reflect, learn, and grow, and it’s not a substitute for human connection,” Brown said.
When asked if there’s a limit on the frequency of interactions with his digital clone, Brown replied, “People can talk to it as much as they need. That said, the goal isn’t to keep users talking to the AI indefinitely. It’s designed to help people make progress in their lives.”
He also mentions that there are safeguards in place to keep interactions safe, with a team of humans overseeing the app. (However, users should keep in mind that using the AI feature means they’re sharing their conversation data with Delphi, so it’s smart to avoid disclosing sensitive info.)
He adds, “When AI first started becoming part of the conversation a few years ago, I was honestly pretty skeptical. But the technology has evolved significantly, and what changed my perspective was seeing how thoughtfully companies like Delphi have approached it.”
In the future, Delphi plans to introduce agentic capabilities to Kē to perform tasks on users’ behalf. For instance, if AI Karamo gives you advice on your workout routine, it may one day be able to go into the “My Plan” tab for you and adjust it immediately.
Kē is now available on iOS and Android devices. The subscription costs $14.99/month after the three-day free trial.
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Tech
The CEO of Allbirds’ new AI biz has a plan, but no employees
Call it a startup with a sole founder and a very large seed round, but what’s next is less clear.
source
Tech
Billionaire Ambani wants AI in every call, app, and home
As India searches for a homegrown contender in the global artificial intelligence race, billionaire Mukesh Ambani is positioning Reliance Industries as a national champion, rolling out AI services for phone calls, mobile apps, and connected homes.
At its annual shareholder meeting on Friday, the Mumbai-based conglomerate announced Jio Call Agent, an AI assistant that can join phone calls to transcribe conversations, generate summaries, and perform tasks such as booking cabs, ordering food, and making reservations. The service, which can be activated by saying “Hey Jio,” is expected to launch later this year for Jio’s more than 500 million users.
By embedding the service directly into its telecom network rather than offering it as a standalone app, Jio is betting AI assistance can become a native feature of phone calls. The approach could reduce consumers’ reliance on third-party call-assistant apps and give Reliance a powerful distribution advantage in an increasingly crowded AI market.
Reliance also unveiled an AI-powered version of its MyJio app that can perform tasks on behalf of users, from activating eSIMs to selecting roaming plans, through natural-language requests. The company further introduced TeleFrame, a home display that uses AI agents to proactively surface information and recommendations, such as weather alerts, schedules, and household reminders. The product appears to echo a broader industry push toward ambient AI assistants for the home, an area being explored by companies including Amazon and Google.
The announcements mark the next phase of Reliance’s AI ambitions as India seeks to build domestic capabilities in a field largely dominated by U.S. and Chinese technology companies. The push follows the launch of Reliance Intelligence last year, through which the conglomerate aims to develop AI infrastructure and services for consumers, businesses, and governments, including applications that support 22 Indian languages.
“India should not be a mere consumer of AI created elsewhere. It must become a creator, adopter, and a global leader in AI,” Ambani, 69, said.
Reliance has been ramping up its AI ambitions through partnerships with Google, Meta, and Nvidia. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to invest $110 billion in AI infrastructure as it seeks to establish itself as a major player in India’s emerging AI ecosystem.
At the shareholder meeting, Reliance also unveiled a suite of AI services for healthcare, education, agriculture, and small businesses. The products, branded JioHealthIQ, JioLearnIQ, JioKrishiIQ, and AI Vyapar, are designed to operate across multiple Indian languages and cater to local needs, the company said.
The shareholder meeting also brought a major development for investors awaiting Jio’s stock market debut. Ambani said Jio Platforms’ board had approved a draft prospectus for an initial public offering that would include a fresh issue of up to 270 million shares, according to a stock exchange filing.
The announcements also raise questions about how Reliance will handle user data as it expands AI services across phone calls, mobile apps, and connected homes. While the company said the services would operate with user consent, it did not answer questions about whether data generated through the products could be used to train AI models or shared with technology partners.
Reliance’s AI ambitions come as Indian companies remain heavily reliant on foreign AI models and cloud providers. Recent restrictions on access to some of Anthropic’s latest models have underscored that dependency, showing how decisions made overseas can affect startups and businesses building AI products in India — the kind of supply-chain risk that’s pushing Indian conglomerates toward building their own stack rather than renting someone else’s.
Last week, Reliance announced a collaboration with Meta to establish an AI data center in the western state of Gujarat, building on Meta’s earlier investment in Jio Platforms and a joint venture launched last year to develop AI solutions for enterprise customers in India and overseas markets.
Reliance is not alone in pursuing AI opportunities. Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and rival Adani Group have also expanded their AI initiatives and partnerships with global players, including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, as India’s largest corporations race to secure a leading role in the country’s AI future.
Nonetheless, for Reliance, the stakes are particularly high; it’s preparing Jio for a long-awaited stock market debut and needs new growth drivers, with the conglomerate’s shares down about 17% this year.
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