ASML’s $400 million chipmaking machines get a vote of confidence from Intel
Intel says it has processed more than one million wafers using ASML’s next-generation High NA EUV technology, as TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix prepare to adopt the machines for production.
For years, one of the biggest questions facing the semiconductor industry was whether chipmakers would actually need the next generation of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. The answer is beginning to look clearer.
ASML’s High Numerical Aperture, or High NA, EUV systems cost roughly $400 million each, about twice as much as the company’s existing EUV machines. Yet the world’s largest chipmakers are increasingly committing to the technology, while Intel says it has already processed more than one million wafers using High NA tools.
The developments suggest that the enormous spending generated by the artificial intelligence boom is helping push one of the semiconductor industry’s most expensive and consequential technologies from experimentation toward broader production.
Intel Foundry and ASML said last week that High NA is already being used in high-volume manufacturing at Intel. More than one million wafers have been processed across early tool certification and testing, research and development, and volume production on selected layers of a subset of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, code-named Panther Lake.
Intel said overlay, throughput and availability of the High NA systems are meeting its expectations. Products manufactured on Intel’s 18A process using High NA on selected layers are also delivering performance that meets or exceeds comparable layers patterned using ASML’s existing NXE EUV platform.
That matters because High NA is not merely a more expensive version of the machinery chipmakers already use. It is the next generation of EUV technology, designed to print smaller features and potentially reduce the number of manufacturing steps required to produce advanced chips.
The technology has been under scrutiny precisely because of its cost and because chipmakers have spent years looking at alternatives, including advances in chip packaging and three-dimensional stacking, that could potentially reduce the need to shrink features further.
But the economics of AI are changing the calculation.
ASML CFO Roger Dassen told Reuters that the company’s existing EUV machines, which cost around $200 million each, are effectively sold out through 2027. At the same time, customers have made a flurry of commitments to adopt the newer High NA systems.
“Can you give me more? Can you give it to me fast?” was the tone of one recent conversation with a major customer, Dassen told Reuters.
The shift is particularly significant because High NA was developed on the assumption that chipmakers would eventually need another major advance in lithography. ASML has had a monopoly on EUV machines since the late 2010s, and High NA is the company’s next step in a technology that has become indispensable to the production of the industry’s most advanced chips.
Intel was the first adopter of High NA and installed the first commercial EXE system in 2024. The company has since worked with ASML and a wider network of mask makers, automation suppliers, electronic design automation companies, materials providers and semiconductor manufacturers to address another obstacle to the technology’s broader adoption: the size and format of the masks used in the manufacturing process.
Intel says customers can use High NA with the industry’s current six-inch mask format, either by designing within the available area or by using a technique known as stitching. The company is also working toward the adoption of larger 6-by-12-inch masks.
The issue may sound technical, but it illustrates the scale of coordination required to introduce a new generation of chipmaking equipment. A lithography machine cannot simply be installed in a factory and switched on. The surrounding ecosystem of masks, software, materials, automation and manufacturing processes has to evolve with it.
Intel said it has spent more than three years championing the large-mask initiative and working with ASML and other companies to establish the standards and infrastructure needed for future High NA scaling.
The industry’s willingness to make those investments is also becoming more visible among other major chipmakers.
According to Reuters, TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix have set dates for beginning High NA production, while Micron has ordered the machines without yet setting a production date. Samsung plans to begin memory-chip production using High NA in 2028, while SK Hynix has also announced plans to use the technology from 2028.
TSMC had previously questioned whether High NA could justify its roughly $400 million price tag but has now committed to using the technology from 2030, according to Reuters.
JPMorgan estimates that ASML held a 94% share of the global lithography market in 2025. Its position is even stronger at the leading edge, where it has maintained a monopoly in EUV.
High NA could therefore extend an existing advantage rather than disrupt the competitive structure of the lithography market.
The bigger question is how long the current AI-driven investment cycle will continue. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet told Reuters: “I don't think we're at the end of the AI boom, to be honest.”
