The valley on the Ostalb does not impose itself as the scene of world politics.

The nearest major city is more than an hour's drive away.

The village has almost 8000 inhabitants.

For a long time here on the outskirts of Baden-Württemberg, people didn't think it was necessary to get involved with politics, or even to cultivate contacts in Berlin or Brussels, or even in Washington or Beijing.

Gustave parts

Business correspondent in Stuttgart.

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But more and more eyes are now turning to the venerable, 175-year-old Zeiss Group, which has been squeezed into the narrow, tranquil valley on the border with Bavaria since the end of the Second World War.

Hundreds of thousands watched the YouTube video of an English-language news channel, the translated title of which reads: "Without this German product, modern civilization would collapse".

Because Zeiss, together with the Swabian company Trumpf, is the most important supplier of the machine that produces the best chips in the world.

Zeiss is supplying the mirrors for the machine, which is being produced by the Dutch company ASML, and Trumpf is supplying the laser technology.

wrestling of world powers

The chip industry is currently the most important arena in the geopolitical struggle between China and the West.

The measures imposed by the Biden administration earlier this month are considered to be the most far-reaching in many years.

There are severe restrictions on Americans working in China's chip industry.

Some high-performance chips can no longer be exported to China, as can the machines needed to produce them.

It was the next escalation in the dispute.

The Americans have been preventing the export of ASML's machines to the Middle Kingdom for years.

These measures are made possible because the West has semiconductor technologies that China does not have.

The machine of the ASML group, which has become one of the most valuable in Europe in recent years, is the ace up the sleeve of the West.

The machine uses extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) for chip production, which has a much shorter wavelength than anything previously used in chip production - 13 nanometers instead of 193 nanometers.

It is the technology that keeps the old Moore's law, according to which the performance of computer chips doubles at most every two years, "live for at least 10 years," says Trumpf Laser boss Volker Jacobsen.

Observers roll over their heads in their descriptions of the behemoth: "The most complicated Cold War machine in the tech world" or "the most important company you've never heard of," is how ASML and its machine are described by international commentators.

A giant hangar without dust

Trumpf and Zeiss, which together provide about two-fifths of the added value for the machine, are extremely unlikely players in geopolitics.

Both are companies with deep regional roots. Zeiss, the company from the valley, belongs to a foundation that promotes research and teaching.

Trumpf belongs to the Leibinger family, boss Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller is married to a member of the board, she grew up with another, it is her brother.

The company, which will be 100 years old next year, actually manufactures sheet metal processing machines that are used in car production, for example.

Trumpf is based in Ditzingen in the commuter belt of Stuttgart, the headquarters of the Bosch Group is almost within shouting distance, and in between is a villa district from which Stuttgart's business elite looks out over the plain towards Heilbronn.