ASML is preparing investors for higher prices on its low-NA EUV lithography systems, the machines that leading chipmakers use to print the most advanced logic and memory chips. The change matters because these scanners sit on the critical path for companies such as TSMC, and ASML’s order book means any new pricing stance could shape fab budgets years before a tool arrives.
Roger Dassen, ASML’s chief financial officer, told analysts on the company’s quarterly earnings call that continued productivity gains in low-NA EUV tools give the company room for “potential price improvements,” while adding that long lead times mean the effect will not show up immediately.
The Information reported that the idea has already angered TSMC, ASML’s largest customer. TSMC depends heavily on low-NA EUV scanners for its leading-edge manufacturing roadmap and has held off on moving to high-NA EUV for near-term process nodes, according to the report.
ASML wants to charge for more than wafers per hour
ASML has described its pricing as value-based. In practice, that has meant charging more as new systems improve output, reduce patterning costs, use power more efficiently, or deliver better technical results for customers.
Low-NA EUV prices have already climbed across generations. Early Twinscan NXE systems were roughly €100 million to €120 million, or about $115 million to $137 million, while newer low-NA systems start around €170 million, or about $195 million. That remains below reported high-NA EXE scanner quotes above €350 million, or about $400 million.
The performance changes are not imaginary spreadsheet perfume. Low-NA EUV throughput has moved from about 160 to 170 wafers per hour with matched-machine overlay of 1.1 nanometers or better, to 220 or 260 wafers per hour on the NXE:3800E and NXE:3800F at 0.9 nanometers, according to the figures reported. Future NXE:4200G and NXE:4200H systems are expected to exceed 300 wafers per hour and improve overlay to between 0.8 and 0.7 nanometers or better.
Dassen said ASML sees more pricing flexibility because of the value its products bring customers. He also said the company intends to keep using a value-based model, while suggesting ASML may put more weight on benefits beyond raw throughput, including imaging and overlay. Overlay is the scanner’s ability to line up one chip layer with another, a boring-sounding metric that becomes expensive fast when it drifts.
The backlog limits near-term price moves
ASML cannot turn the knob overnight. Production for 2027 is nearly sold out, and the company already has substantial orders booked for 2028, according to the report. Orders already in backlog carry assigned sales values, with inflation adjustments, so much of the near-term output may already be priced unless customers and ASML renegotiate.
That means larger price changes would most likely hit systems delivered from late 2028 onward, or any new orders that ASML can fit into earlier production slots. The NXE:4200G, expected in 2029, would also raise average selling prices through a normal product transition because it brings a major performance increase.
Why TSMC cares
TSMC operates the largest low-NA EUV fleet and needs more scanners for fabs in Taiwan, the United States, and Japan, according to the report. Its roadmap through 2030 relies on stretching low-NA EUV with better masks, computational lithography, and multipatterning. The company has planned to avoid high-NA EUV until at least its 10A-class, or 1 nm-class, technology.
Higher low-NA prices could therefore hit TSMC’s capital spending across many years of planned purchases. The report says even modest increases beyond TSMC’s assumptions could add billions of dollars to spending, weaken the financial case for delaying high-NA EUV, and raise manufacturing costs.
A faster move to high-NA would not be a clean escape hatch. High-NA EUV requires the much pricier scanners, plus new resists, masks, pellicles, metrology, design rules, and computational lithography flows. The report says those supporting pieces are likely not ready at TSMC.
This story draws on original reporting from Tom's Hardware.
