As the world faces an unprecedented shortage of chips, competition is increasingly fierce between the various players in the market. Intel, for example, aims to become the world number one again.
As explained in a November article by Cnet.com, Intel’s goal is to catch up on technology behind Samsung and TSMC in 2024 and then overtake them in 2025.
And in order to implement this plan, American society needs state-of-the-art equipment. Also, this week, Intel and the Dutch company ASML announce an order for a new generation of machines for manufacturing chips.
“Intel has issued its first purchase order to ASML for the delivery of the industry’s first TWINSCAN EXE:5200 system – a high-volume extreme ultraviolet (EUV) production system with high numerical aperture and productivity of more than 200 slices per hour – as part of the two companies’ long-term High-NA collaboration”, we read in a press release.
Machines Made in Europe
You may have never heard of ASML and yet this company is a major player in the semiconductor industry. Indeed, it is the European champion that produces the essential equipment for the production of the chips used by our smartphones and other electronic devices.
And today, Intel is placing a big order to ensure the availability of the new generation of ASML machines within a few years. Indeed, the agreement between the two companies provides for these machines to start producing chips from 2025. This will allow Intel to offer products capable of competing with chips made by TSMC or Samsung.
According to Reuters, the most advanced ASML machine to date costs nearly $150 million. And the one Intel ordered would cost more than $340 million.
In essence, these are significant investments, but necessary to stay in the race and produce ever more miniaturized chips (which allows a gain in performance and energy efficiency).
“Intel’s goal is to remain at the forefront of semiconductor lithography technology and we have grown our EUV expertise and capabilities over the past year. Working closely with ASML, we will leverage high-resolution EUV High-NA modeling as one of the ways to continue Moore’s Law and maintain our strong track record of progressing down to the smallest of geometries. », said Dr. Ann Kelleher, executive vice president and general manager of technology development at Intel.
In any case, the order from Intel is announced while for its part, TSMC continues to invest tens of billions of dollars in order to increase its production capacities. While the Taiwanese company had invested $30 billion in 2021, it plans to invest more than $40 billion in 2022.