Intel has secured all of ASML’s stock of High Numerical Aperture NA Extreme Ultraviolet (High NA EUV) chipmaking equipment due to be manufactured this year.
According to a report in TheElec, Netherlands-based ASML has capacity to produce around five or six units of high-NA EUV equipment each year, with Intel having secured all five that are slated for production in 2024. Each unit costs approximately $370 million.
The report added that Samsung and SK Hynix will now have to wait until the second half of 2025 to get hold of equipment from ASML.
Intel received its first High NA EUV machine from ASML in January 2024, with assembly of the Oregon-housed machine completed in mid-April. The TWINSCAN EXE:5000 is the first commercial lithography system of its kind and Intel has previously said it plans to use the equipment to reduce its total number of outsourced wafers.
The company hopes this will help its struggling Foundry business to start reversing its fortunes after it reported $7 billion in operating losses in 2023.
ASML is the sole global supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography photolithography machines that are needed to make the most advanced 3nm and 5nm chips. Based in the Eindhoven suburb of Veldhoven, Netherlands, ASML is Europe’s most valuable tech company with a market cap of €338.7 billion ($363.2bn).
The company’s High NA EUV machine works by hitting droplets of tin heated to approximately 220,000 degrees Celsius (396,032 degrees Fahrenheit) with a laser to create 13.5nm light wavelengths, which do not naturally occur on Earth. This light is then reflected off a mask containing a template of the circuit pattern, and then through an optical system built with the most accurate mirrors ever fabricated.
In April 2024, ASML’s long-serving CEO Peter Wennink retired. He was replaced by the company’s former chief business officer, Christophe Fouquet.
