TSMC questions ASML upgrade

Tiny circuits are drawn with light, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. says it can keep shrinking those patterns without buying ASML’s newest high‑NA machines yet. (reuters.com) (asml.com) TSMC told reporters on April 22 in Santa Clara that it does not plan to use ASML’s high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet tools in production through 2029. Bloomberg reported the machines cost more than €350 million, or about $410 million, each. (bloomberg.com) (asml.com) ASML’s high‑NA system is a more precise lens for chipmaking: its EXE:5000 can print features 1.7 times smaller in a single exposure than older NXE systems, according to ASML. TSMC’s position is that its current extreme ultraviolet lineup is still good enough for the next few generations of volume production. (asml.com) (reuters.com) TSMC used the same event to introduce A13, the process it said will enter production in 2029. The company said A13 is a direct shrink of A14, which TSMC announced in April 2025 for production in 2028. (tsmc.com 1) (tsmc.com 2) The decision shifts attention from the tool that prints the chip to the factory steps that connect several chips into one package. Reuters reported that TSMC plans to open a chip-packaging plant in Arizona by 2029, and advanced packaging has become a bottleneck for artificial intelligence chips used by Nvidia and others. (finance.yahoo.com) Packaging matters because many AI processors are no longer one slab of silicon. They are several chiplets linked together with high-speed connections, using TSMC technologies such as CoWoS and SoIC that the company highlights alongside its logic roadmap. (finance.yahoo.com) (tsmc.com) That creates a problem for ASML, which has argued that high‑NA is the next step for the industry’s most advanced chips. TSMC is ASML’s largest customer, Bloomberg reported, so a delay by TSMC pushes back one of the clearest cases for the new tool in high-volume manufacturing. (bloomberg.com) The competitive picture is not one-sided. Reuters reported in 2025 that Intel had already installed ASML high‑NA machines and was processing wafers with them, while TSMC was still evaluating when the economics would work. (reuters.com) The geography matters too. TSMC’s Arizona packaging plan extends the company’s U.S. footprint as Washington pushes for more chip production at home, but the most advanced lithography tools remain subject to export-control politics that have already reshaped ASML’s sales into China. (finance.yahoo.com) (asml.com) For now, TSMC is betting that older EUV machines plus better process integration can carry it to A13 in 2029. ASML still has the sharper tool; TSMC is saying the bill does not pencil out yet. (reuters.com) (bloomberg.com)