The first stock I will talk about today is ASML. This is not a name known to the general public. This is a Netherlands-based company that spun out of Philips in 1984.
What does ASML do? They make the machines used to manufacture the most advanced computer chips in the world. These are extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, also known as EUV systems.
It uses a wavelength of light that is extremely difficult to produce to etch circuit patterns onto silicon chips that are small enough for high-end chips. Therefore, building just one of these systems requires bombarding droplets of molten tin with a laser about 50,000 times per second, then reflecting that light through mirrors designed with extreme precision so that the largest defect in them is still smaller than a millimeter.