ASML is displayed The company says its latest chip-making machine, a huge €350m (R7.2bn) machine weighing as much as two Airbus A320s, will be “essential” for chipmakers wanting to get into artificial intelligence. claims. boom.
The system, called High NA Extreme Ultraviolet, has already received an order from Intel, which shipped the first machines in late December to its D1X factory in Oregon, where the chipmaker will develop and perfect the production technology. It will be expanded from. Intel plans to begin production of this system in late 2025.
The machine can print lines on semiconductors 8 nanometers thick, which is 1.7 times smaller than previous generations. Thinner lines mean more transistors can be put on a chip, resulting in faster processing speeds and more memory in semiconductors being manufactured. This is critical for AI workloads.
AI will require “large amounts of computing power and data storage.” I don’t think that would be possible without ASML and our technology,” Peter Wennink, CEO of the Dutch company, said in an interview last month. “That will be a huge boost for our business.”
ASML is the only company that manufactures the equipment needed to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors, and demand for its products is a bellwether for the health of the industry. The company received record orders for its top-of-the-line extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) equipment last quarter, showing optimism among its biggest customers for the technology, including Intel, Samsung Electronics and TSMC. ing.
ASML spokesperson Monique Mols said during a press tour to its headquarters in Veldhoven that the installation of the first 150,000 kg system would require 250 wooden boxes, 250 engineers and six months to complete. He said that it required .
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The rise of generative AI over the past year has raised expectations across semiconductor companies, starting with OpenAI's announcement of ChatGPT in late 2022. The so-called low NA EUV machine that ASML has been selling since 2018 costs 170 million euros. — Kagan Koch, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP