ASML’s New Machines Are Too Expensive, TSMC Complains

ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients, Bloomberg News reported.

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. Photo: ASML Facebook

“The cost is very high,” TSMC Senior Vice President Kevin Zhang 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.

He added 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.

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 ($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, Taipei Times also reported.