ASML Holding’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, according to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients.
“The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice-president Kevin Zhang said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday (May 14), referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price.”
ASML’s new machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just eight nanometres thick – 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (S$512 million) apiece and weigh as much as two Airbus A320s.
ASML is the only company that produces equipment needed to make the most sophisticated semiconductors, and demand for its products is a bellwether for the industry’s health.
Intel has already placed orders for the latest high-NA EUV machine and got the first one shipped to a factory in Oregon in late December. But it’s not yet clear when TSMC will start buying the equipment.
Zhang said TSMC’s so-called A16 node technology, which is due in late 2026, won’t need to use ASML’s high-NA EUV machines and can continue to rely on TSMC’s older extreme ultraviolet equipment. “I think at this point, our existing EUV capability should be able to support that,” he said.
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Using the new ASML technology will depend on where it makes the most economic sense and “the technical balancing we can achieve”, Zhang said. He declined to comment on when the company will start ordering high-NA machines from ASML.
Rising costs and technical complexity are making the most advanced chipmaking more difficult. Intel faces particular challenges as it tries to regain its once-unshakable technological edge. It’s also pushing into the foundry market – selling outsourced chip manufacturing – an area where TSMC dominates. On Monday, Intel announced a new general manager for its foundry services, already the third chief of the unit since it was founded in 2021.
Zhang said the costs of running a factory, including construction, tools, electricity and raw materials, “keep going up”. “It’s a collective challenge for the whole industry,” he said. BLOOMBERG
