April 24, 2025 in Veldhoven, Netherlands, ASML’s Assia Haddou shows CNBC’s Katie Tarasov a high NA chip manufacturing machine.
Magdalena Petrova
with samsung TSMCthe world’s two largest chip manufacturers, ASMLHigh NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines are on the rise as demand for more advanced chips increases.
ASML’s EUV lithography equipment is a critical tool used to print circuit patterns on silicon wafers during the chip manufacturing process. High NA machines can print smaller, more complex patterns. This tool could cost around $400 million.
Samsung, one of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers, announced that it will use ASML machines to produce DRAM, its main type of memory, starting in 2028.
Samsung said it will adopt the technology in 2030, adding that it will “extend the DRAM scaling roadmap” and make the process more efficient.
ASML stock over the past 12 months.
TSMC said it will use ASML’s tools for advanced chips and expects the use of high-NA machines to increase “primarily due to the increasing complexity of transistor architectures required for AI applications.”
Investors see the success of the high NA EUV equipment as key to ASML’s future growth, with ASML stock up 120% over the last year.
Barclays said in a note on Tuesday that the announcement “should bring greater visibility to the much-discussed implementation,” adding that the news was “positive.”
Shares in Amsterdam-listed ASML were flat to low in early trading Tuesday.
Samsung and TSMC partner up intel As a customer of ASML’s high NA machines. ASML announced in July that Intel is using high-NA EUV technology for advanced chip manufacturing.
ASML has not provided recent guidance on expected sales, but has said that it will add about 30% total EUV production capacity in 2027.
Barclays analysts said the announcement gives ASML more visibility into its plans.
Barclays said: “We believe ASML has a key decision pending on whether to expand its EUV production capacity further than the recently expanded targets it has already set out. Demand is clearly strong.”
TSMC and Samsung will also join ASML in an industry initiative to promote next-generation 12-inch photomask technology, an upgrade from the current 6-inch format. A critical part of chip manufacturing, photomasks are effectively stencils used to print patterns onto wafers.
ASML said the benefits of larger photomasks include improved productivity and reduced chip manufacturing costs.
