ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients.
“The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, 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,” Zhang said.
Photo: Intel Corp via Reuters
ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation.
The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 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 Corp 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 last year, but it is not yet clear when TSMC would start buying the equipment.
Zhang said TSMC’s so-called A16 node technology, which is due in late 2026, would not need to use ASML’s high-NA EUV machines and can continue to rely on TSMC’s older EUV equipment.
“I think at this point, our existing EUV capability should be able to support that,” he said.
Using the new ASML technology would 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 firm would start ordering high-NA EUV 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 is also pushing into the foundry market — selling outsourced chip manufacturing — an area where TSMC dominates.
Intel on Monday 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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS