The Netherlands’ ASML acquires Taiwanese chip equipment supplier Hermes Microvision for $3.1 billion. Both firms provide technology to semiconductor companies, with ASML being the world’s biggest chipmaking equipment supplier, with customers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The Dutch company specializes in the manufacture of lithography machines, which allow for the etching of lines used to deposit materials on silicon disks. It has been pushing an extreme ultraviolet system which would produce increasingly smaller chips with more capacity and accelerated speeds. Hermes Microvision specializes in making pattern verification systems for semiconductor devices.

This acquisition further contributes to a recent wave of consolidation in the semiconductor industry. It will also be one of the biggest inbound acquisitions for Taiwan, an island close to China known for its tech industry.

The voices of the Sentifi crowd for ASML exploded from an average of 10 per day to almost 400.

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