By Max A. Cherney<\/p>\n
SAN JOSE, California, March 2 (Reuters) – ASML Holding has ambitious plans to expand its line of chipmaking equipment into several new products to capture more of the rapidly growing market for artificial intelligence<\/a> chips, a senior executive told Reuters.<\/p>\n More than a decade in development, ASML is the only maker of extreme \u200cultraviolet, or EUV, equipment, which is crucial for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Intel in manufacturing the world’s most advanced AI chips. ASML has poured billions of dollars into \u200cdeveloping the EUV systems, has a next-generation product nearing production and is researching a third potential generation.<\/p>\n The Dutch company is looking to grow beyond its EUV roots and plans to expand into the market to make tools that can help \u200bglue and connect multiple specialized chips, called advanced packaging – a key building block for AI chips and the advanced memory that feeds them. As part of those plans, the company will deploy AI in its forthcoming businesses and legacy efforts.<\/p>\n “We look, not just for the next five years, we look at the next 10, maybe 15 years,” ASML Chief Technology Officer Marco Pieters told Reuters. “(We look at) what are potential directions the industry could take, and what would it require in terms of packaging, bonding, etc.?”<\/p>\n The EUV machines ASML builds are used for lithography, the process of using light to print complex patterns onto \u200csilicon wafers to make chips. The company also plans to determine whether \u2060it can expand the maximum size of chips it can print beyond its current boundary – roughly the size of a postage stamp – which limits its speed.<\/p>\n NEW TECH BOSS<\/p>\n In October, the company promoted Pieters to CTO, replacing Martin van den Brink, who had a roughly 40-year run as head of the technology \u2060unit. ASML also said in January it reorganized its technology business to prioritize engineering roles versus management.<\/p>\n Investors have priced into the stock the company’s dominance in EUV and have lofty expectations for Pieters and CEO Christophe Fouquet, who was appointed in 2024. Shares trade at roughly 40 times forward earnings, compared with Nvidia<\/a>, which trades at about 22 times earnings.<\/p>\n The $560-billion-market cap company’s shares have gained more than 30% this year.<\/p>\n ASML is stepping up \u200bplans \u200bto build machines that help package chips and beginning to develop chipmaking tools that can help build newer \u200bgenerations of advanced AI processors.<\/p>\n “We’re actually researching that – to what extent can we \u200cparticipate in it, or what we can add to that part of the business,” Pieters said.<\/p>\n Pieters, who has a background in ASML’s software development effort, said as the company’s tools get faster, its engineers will be able to use AI to speed up its machines’ control software and the tools’ inspection of chips as they are constructed.<\/p>\n CHIPS LIKE SKYSCRAPERS<\/p>\n Until the last couple of years, designers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices built chips that were essentially flat, like a single-story home. Increasingly, chips are becoming more like skyscrapers with multiple levels linked through nanometer-sized connections.<\/p>\n