It is the most valuable technology company in Europe and without any doubt the most important company in the Netherlands. Without ASML, the world would be a very different place. The company designs the huge and highly complex machines that produce the world's most advanced chips.

Intel, Samsung, Apple, Tesla: they all use chips made with ASML equipment. For years, the multinational operated in the background, but a geopolitical landslide has put it at the centre of the technology wars. Both America and China want to be able to supply themselves with the best chips, and so does Europe. Every superpower is looking for ASML. How did it all develop? How did the company from Veldhoven manage to become such an important part of the chip world? Marc Hijink followed ASML from the inside for years. He talked intensively and worldwide to all the key players in the ASML network, from former employees, suppliers and chip manufacturers to politicians and critics. The result is a breathtaking, highly accessible journey through the world of technology, from Asia to Arizona, past clean rooms and boardrooms to the back offices in Washington. As well as an extraordinary inside portrait of a Dutch billion-dollar company, it is a unique story of industrial innovation and the global struggle for economic and military power. For what is really going on in this secretive company which suddenly finds itself in the eye of stormy world politics?