TSMC Delays High‑NA Purchases
- Taiwan Semiconductor is delaying purchases of ASML’s newest high‑NA EUV machines and setting later production targets. - The company is targeting 2029 production for its next-generation A13 and A12-class nodes and deferring high‑NA orders to around 2029. - Analysts say the delay could improve margins but signals more selective capital discipline across the AI-driven chip supply chain (seekingalpha.com).
TSMC said this week it will keep making leading-edge chips without ASML’s newest high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet machines through 2029. (tsmc.com) At TSMC’s North America Technology Symposium on April 22, the company introduced its A13 process and said A13 will enter production in 2029. Electronics Weekly, citing deputy co-chief operating officer Kevin Zhang, reported TSMC has “no plans to buy” the roughly €350 million high-NA tools for that period. (tsmc.com) (electronicsweekly.com) TSMC’s updated roadmap also stretches to A12 and N2U in 2029, while A16 volume production is now slated for 2027 rather than 2026, according to reports from the symposium. TrendForce said both A12 and A13 are planned without high-NA adoption. (trendforce.com) (tech.yahoo.com) High-NA is the next version of extreme ultraviolet lithography, the light-based patterning system used to print the smallest features on advanced chips. Intel said in April 2024 that it had completed installation of the first commercial high-NA tool from ASML at its Oregon development fab. (newsroom.intel.com) ASML’s high-NA scanners carry a much steeper price than current extreme ultraviolet systems. Industry reports have put the new machines at about €350 million to $380 million each, or more than twice the cost of many existing low-NA extreme ultraviolet tools. (bloomberg.com) (yolegroup.com) TSMC’s argument is that it can still squeeze more out of the machines it already uses. Zhang said the company can “continue to harvest the benefit from current EUV” through 2029, while A13 is designed as a direct shrink of A14 with fully backward-compatible design rules and 6% area savings. (electronicsweekly.com) (tsmc.com) That stance lands in the middle of an artificial-intelligence buildout that has pushed chipmakers and equipment suppliers to spend heavily on capacity, packaging, and power-hungry compute hardware. TSMC told symposium attendees its latest nodes are aimed at artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and mobile customers, even as it avoids the most expensive new lithography step for now. (tsmc.com 1) (tsmc.com 2) For ASML, the delay does not erase demand, but it does push out one of the industry’s biggest expected customers for high-NA volume manufacturing. Bloomberg reported the decision could save TSMC money, while analyst commentary carried by Yahoo Finance said the slower ramp may reshape expectations for ASML’s timing rather than the long-term role of the tool. (bloomberg.com) (finance.yahoo.com) The immediate result is simpler than the jargon: the world’s biggest contract chipmaker is choosing to stretch today’s extreme ultraviolet machines further before buying tomorrow’s. TSMC’s next test will be whether A13 and A12 hit their 2029 targets without the tool its rivals have spent years preparing to use. (electronicsweekly.com) (trendforce.com)
