Samsung will use the newest High-NA EUV systems for memory chips starting in 2028. TSMC will follow for logic chips in 2030, according to Bloomberg<\/a>, joining Intel Corporation (INTC) as the third confirmed customer. <\/p>\n Each machine costs roughly $400 million, according to CNBC<\/a>. That is the exact price Samsung and TSMC cited in August, when both said they would hold the technology back until nodes near 2030. Three weeks later, they signed a formal joint commitment instead. <\/p>\n Samsung’s timeline matters beyond the lithography roadmap. The company will bring High-NA EUV into memory production as a global shortage of memory chips, driven by AI data center demand, pushes prices higher across electronics, according to Bloomberg. <\/p>\n That shortage gave Samsung a reason to formalize a date instead of leaving it open-ended. <\/p>\n Related: US, Japan $550 billion deal leaves AI chip stocks guessing<\/a> <\/p>\n The objection was never about the technology <\/p>\n The delay was never about whether High-NA machines work. Intel already settled that question by running the systems in production, according to CNBC. <\/p>\n The real question was whether the economics justified the price, since TSMC and Samsung compete on cost per chip, not on owning the newest tool. <\/p>\n That is why the second half of the announcement matters more than the headline. ASML, TSMC and Samsung also agreed to shift from six-inch photomasks, the stencils that print circuit patterns onto silicon, to a larger 12-inch format. <\/p>\n 12-inch masks enable greater scanner productivity and allow the industry to meet the demand for smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient chips. <\/p>\n ASML Chief Technology Officer Marco Pieters noted that the bigger masks could lift machine output by 40%. That means fewer machines are needed to produce the same number of chips. <\/p>\n A $400 million machine looks very different once it can print 40% more wafers. That figure, not the sticker price, is what determines what a chip actually costs to make. <\/p>\n The mask initiative, more than the lithography tool itself, appears to be what moved TSMC and Samsung off the sidelines. <\/p>\n The near-term roadmap, as confirmed in the companies’ announcements, breaks down like this: <\/p>\n High-NA EUV systems are already in production at Intel, which took delivery of the equipment before either rival, according to CNBC. <\/p>\n DRAM manufacturing with High-NA EUV is set to begin at Samsung by 2028. <\/p>\n TSMC is targeting logic chip production with High-NA EUV by 2030, with a 12-inch mask pilot line to follow by 2031. <\/p>\n Intel’s position here inverts its own history. The company delayed adopting ASML’s original EUV machines in the 2010s, a decision that let TSMC pull ahead and eventually forced Intel to outsource its most advanced chips. <\/p>\n This time, Intel moved first and is the only company already running High-NA systems in volume production. <\/p>\n For a foundry business still trying to rebuild, being first matters. Intel is using its High-NA lead to court outside customers who need leading-edge capacity. <\/p>\n It is one of the few technical advantages Intel can currently claim over TSMC. <\/p>\n TSMC’s exposure to ASML is bigger than it looks <\/p>\n ASML trades on Nasdaq and Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker ASML, and the stock has climbed roughly 120% over the past year, according to CNBC. <\/p>\n TSMC alone accounts for about 16% of ASML’s revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg<\/a>. That concentration cuts in both directions. <\/p>\n More Tech: <\/p>\n It gives ASML unusual visibility into future demand whenever a customer of TSMC’s size signs a multiyear commitment. It also means ASML’s growth is tied to the capital spending decisions of three companies, since Samsung and Intel round out its largest customers. <\/p>\n A slowdown at any one of them would show up quickly in ASML’s order book. <\/p>\n AI chip capacity is a decade-long project <\/p>\n The most overlooked detail in this week’s announcement is the timeline. ASML and TSMC are targeting a pilot line for 12-inch masks by 2031, with full production readiness by 2033, according to the companies’ press release<\/a>. That is seven years from now. <\/p>\n For investors who treat AI chip shortages as a problem that more capital can fix within a year or two, that timeline is a useful correction. <\/p>\n The equipment that will make next-generation AI chips affordable is still being designed, and the companies that build it are only now agreeing on its format. <\/p>\n The bottleneck in AI hardware is not closing soon. It is being built for the 2030s, one commitment at a time. <\/p>\n Related: Why is Taiwan hiding the backers of its $20B US pledge?<\/a> <\/p>\n This story was originally published by TheStreet<\/a> on Sep 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Technology<\/a> section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In mid-August, process engineers at Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF) stood on stage in Seoul and said the industry’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[74939,29240,74938,3990,127,276,3246],"class_list":["post-147739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-asml-holding","tag-euv","tag-intel-corporation","tag-memory-chips","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-tsmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> The shift to larger 12-inch photomasks allows chipmakers to increase wafer output by 40%, fundamentally changing the economics of $400 million EUV machines.Oleh Stefaniak \/ Getty Images Intel is finally ahead instead of behind <\/p>\n