The Closest Thing We Have to Alien Technology

The insane machines that make the most advanced computer chips. Sponsored by Brilliant - To learn for free for a full 30 days, go to https://brilliant.org/veritasium and get started. Plus, our viewers get 20% off an annual Premium subscription for unlimited daily access to all Brilliant courses. In 2025, we launched the Elements of Truth game on Kickstarter and were thrilled by the response. We’re now in the final stages of production, with Kickstarter rewards shipping soon. If you missed the campaign, you can now pre-order the retail edition through our new website here - https://ve42.co/ASML If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up for the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ▀▀▀ 0:00 The Machine That Saved Moore’s Law 3:12 How are microchips made? 9:11 What is extreme ultraviolet lithography? 15:04 Nuclear Fusion To The Rescue 21:59 How ASML Conquered The Chip World 35:35 Who are ASML’s biggest customers? 37:40 The Most Important Tech Company In The World 41:25 Inside ASML ▀▀▀ A big thank you to Marc Assinck, Jos Benschop, Jan van Schoot, and Jayson Stewart and the rest of the team at ASML. We are also incredibly grateful to Vivek Bakshi, Andy Hawryluk, Marc Hijink, Asianometry & Claude Montcalm for their time and expertise. If you want to learn more about ASML and how they developed EUV, check out Marc Hijnk's book “Focus: The ASML way” - https://focus-dewereldvanasml.nl/ Explore the Asianometry channel (including a wealth of EUV videos) here -    / @asianometry   See Jayson Stewart’s article on the EUV light source and supernovas here - https://spectrum.ieee.org/euv-light-s... The photo at 0:16 is used with the kind permission of Piotr Krzemiński - check out his channel ‪@nanopirate‬ ▀▀▀ References: https://ve42.co/ASMLRefs ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, armedtoe, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Damien, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jon Jamison, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Bush, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robert Oliveira, Sam Lutfi, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, wolfee ▀▀▀ Writers: Sulli Yost, Casper Mebius & Derek Muller Producer and Director: Sulli Yost Presenters: Derek Muller & Casper Mebius Editor: Trenton Oliver Additional Editors: Spencer Wright, James Stuart & Peter Nelson Additional Writer: Vibhor Pandey Animators: Andrew Neet, Emma Wright, Fabio Albertelli, & Mike Radjabov Illustrators: Jakub Misiek, Maria Gusakovich, Veronika Pasynkova, Grace Nemanic, Isaac McRee, Nataly Zhuk & Hollisstudioo Camera Operators: Sulli Yost, Richard van Rijn, Derek Muller & Casper Mebius Researchers: Gabe Strong, Callum Cuttle & Aakash Singh Bagga Thumbnail Designers: Ren Hurley, Ben Powell & Abdallah Rabah Production Team: Josh Pitt, Matthew Cavanagh, Anna Milkovic & Katy Southwood Executive Producers: Casper Mebius & Derek Muller Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound