So, you know how everyone's talking about the AI boom and how we need more powerful chips to keep it going? Well, the company that makes the machines that make those chips just announced its next big thing is ready to roll. ASML Holding N.V. (ASML), the only outfit selling commercial extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems, says its new High-NA EUV machines are now prepared for mass production. With a price tag of about $400 million each, these aren't your average tools—they're the beasts expected to power the next leap in AI hardware.
Think of ASML as the company that sells the incredibly complex, multi-million-dollar printing presses that chipmakers use to etch circuits onto silicon wafers. Their new High-NA tool is the latest and greatest model, developed to help customers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSM) and Intel Corp (INTC) produce chips that are both more powerful and more energy-efficient. That's the holy grail for AI data centers and devices.
Chief Technology Officer Marco Pieters told Reuters the company will be presenting new technical data at a conference in San Jose to highlight the machine's progress. And the progress sounds substantial. These High-NA systems have already processed 500,000 silicon wafers in testing, achieved limited downtime, and demonstrated the precision needed to create the most advanced chip circuits. At roughly $400 million a pop, they cost nearly twice as much as ASML's previous generation of EUV machines, which tells you something about the technological leap involved.
Here's the interesting part about the rollout timeline. While the machines are technically ready to be shipped from the factory, Pieters noted that chipmakers will likely need another two to three years of testing and development work before they can fully integrate these systems into their own mass production lines. It's a bit like delivering a Formula 1 car to a racing team—the car is built, but the team still needs time to tune it for their specific track and driver. ASML says it's currently reporting about 80% uptime for the systems and aims to hit 90% by the end of the year.
More Power, More Wafers
In a separate but related development, ASML also announced a significant advance in a critical component: the EUV light source. This isn't about the High-NA machine itself, but about boosting the output of the existing and future EUV production lines. The company says its system can now consistently generate 1,000 watts of power under real customer conditions and sees a clear path to reaching 1,500 watts, with no fundamental barrier to eventually hitting 2,000 watts.
Why does the wattage of a light source matter? In the world of chipmaking, more power means you can expose wafers faster. This breakthrough could increase overall chip output by as much as 50% by the end of the decade. Practically speaking, it could allow customers to raise their wafer production from roughly 220 per hour today to about 330 per hour by 2030. That's a huge productivity bump for an industry constantly scrambling to meet demand.
