ASML's Best Selling Product Isn't What You Think It Is

jjohncole about 3 hours ago 37 commentsRead Article on siliconimist.com

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Discussion (37 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

cassianoleal•about 3 hours ago

> Even at the absolute bleeding edge of human physics, we still have a fundamental desire to play.

I'd say play is of fundamental importance at the bleeding edge of knowledge and technology. Without play, there's no appetite for failure. Without appetite for failure, there's no progress, no novel solutions, no creativity.

btown•about 1 hour ago

For those interested in ASML, and how much engineering goes into being able to make EUV lithography work reliably at scale for 3nm nodes (by hitting individual droplets of tin with highly accurate lasers and turning them into plasma!), I highly recommend this recent (Dec 2025) Veritasium video about them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUHjLxm3V0

For more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithograph...

(There's something incredible and downright "alchemical" about the fact that the reason our sand can "think" is because we use light to vaporize tin which then carves intricate glyphs into the sand!)

voidUpdate•about 2 hours ago

I'm not particularly surprised that the $600 Lego set sells better than the $400 million lithography tool...

mrweasel•about 2 hours ago

It's $200, otherwise I think it would be a bit on the high end in terms of price per piece. $600 is the cheapest version on eBay.

Unless you need the box, you can get the instructions online (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-215601/NightHawk11991/asml-...). Though that might be a recreation.

voidUpdate•about 2 hours ago

(I couldn't see a listed price in the article, so I just went for the cheapest resale price they said. Thanks for clarifying)

shubhamjain•about 1 hour ago

The kind of garbage that gets to the front-page is mind-boggling. Okay, maybe there's some useful trivia here, but combined with the headline, it's just trash clickbait.

throwaway2037•27 minutes ago

1) Why is this entry flagged?

2) For once, I had a good laugh from the obvious clickbait title. Hat tip. You nerd sniped me good!

3) What do you think ASML had to pay Lego to design and create this model? Or maybe Lego has a small division that does custom models like this? Do we know the employee cost for the Lego set? I have not access to this company store link: https://asmlstore.com/products/twinscan-exe-5000-lego-set

4) How long until someone on YouTube creates a functioning lithography tool (say, 1 million nanometers grade) using only authetic Lego materials?

nikitaga•about 2 hours ago

> Employee Only: You cannot buy these in stores. They are sold exclusively to ASML employees with a strictly enforced “one per person” rule.

Wonder if they include this lego set as a gift with their real machines? Or are they like – our commercial agreement is worth $400M and not a lego set above that.

nottorp•about 3 hours ago

When I saw the title I thought it would be some plushie. Turns out I wasn't far from the truth!

behohippy•about 3 hours ago

You might have a business idea there. I wouldn't mind a twinscan plushie for sitting on top of the workstation.

johncole•about 3 hours ago

Spot on!

AntiUSAbah•about 2 hours ago

"Why it matters"

No it doesn't.

And the only thing it does again, to remind me, that this is cool as hell but i'm not able to buy it...

bux93•about 1 hour ago

Two words. Volkswagen sausage.

keernan•about 1 hour ago

They sell fewer than 400 machines a year.

https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/q4-2025-fin...

j_maffe•about 1 hour ago

Can we please do something about these AI slop articles? It's becoming really sadenning having to open a frontpage link only to find the same, meritless, braindead article one time after the other.

planb•about 1 hour ago

You're absolutely right! "Why Does This Matter?" was a dead giveaway that this article was not written by a human — it was written by a large language model.

But really: "Why does this matter?" When looking at an article like this, I rarely read the text. This is just fluff no matter if AI-generated or hand written. The info is "there's a LEGO set of that ASML machine" and the picture of that set. That's all I want to know before clicking the back button.

girvo•44 minutes ago

I’m flagging them, but it’s not enough. Front page is full of it these days. Sad times.

john_strinlai•about 1 hour ago

and then open up the comments section, just to see several identical "ai slop" comments and someone inevitably making a "you're absolutely right" joke.

2ndorderthought•about 2 hours ago

"why does this matter?" Oh hello AI slop how are you today?

johncole•about 2 hours ago

Is this some sort of ai indicator now?

masfuerte•about 1 hour ago

Any of these things on their own do not indicate AI but this article is riddled with tells, including this one.

skrebbel•about 2 hours ago

Yep

amelius•about 2 hours ago

Maybe. At some point, humans will start sounding like AI.

mschuster91•about 1 hour ago

They already do, I recently heard people literally talk like tiktok videos in real life...

markovBaj•about 2 hours ago

for me it was the 3 bullet point list, esp. the "The Sales Gap"

afandian•about 3 hours ago

Saved you a click:

> But right now, the most coveted product coming out of ASML is the 1,000-piece Lego version.

I thought it might be something like service contracts or chemical refills.

newsclues•about 3 hours ago

And it's not available to the public. Bummer.

cassianoleal•about 3 hours ago

There is a knock-off on AliExpress.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010807104987.html

haddonist•about 2 hours ago

Might be worth contacting the seller before buying.

The "Color" (ie: type/what's being sold) is "PDF Manual By Email", so it's possible they selling just the PDF assembly manual...

loudmax•about 2 hours ago

The Chinese knock-off TwinScan is almost as good as the original and far less expensive.

Because of course it is.

pantalaimon•about 1 hour ago

I would have expected a LEGO version of the SMEE machine

johncole•about 2 hours ago

Brilliant. I knew there had to be a solution somewhere.

doe88•about 2 hours ago

It must be to prevent corporate spying ;)

johncole•about 3 hours ago

Find a friend that works at ASML?

bell-cot•about 2 hours ago

> ... sold exclusively to ASML employees with a strictly enforced “one per person” rule.

You'll need to be their very best friend. And make sure they're not too close with their family, nor a big fan of either Lego or collectables, before you cozy up.