今天我要谈的第一只股票是 ASML。这不是一个大众熟知的名字。这是一家总部位于荷兰的公司，于1984年从飞利浦分拆出来。
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.
ASML 是做什么的？他们制造用于生产世界上最先进计算机芯片的机器。这些是极紫外光刻系统，也称为 EUV 系统。它使用一种极难产生的光波长，将电路图案蚀刻到硅芯片上，其精细程度足以用于高端芯片。
因此，仅仅制造一台这样的系统，就需要用激光以每秒约5万次的频率轰击熔融锡液滴，然后让这束光经过以极高精度设计的镜面反射，使镜面上最大的缺陷仍然小于一毫米。
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.