These are five or six cars
Intel has made a big bet on high numerical aperture EUV lithography technology. So large that it bought from ASML all the corresponding machines that the Dutch company will build by the end of this year.
Actually, in absolute terms, this is a little — only five or six installations. Intel received the first one back in March. Let us remind you that one such machine costs about 400 million dollars.
Intel needs new machines to produce semiconductor products using Intel 18A, 14A and possibly thinner processes. It is with high numerical aperture EUV lithography that Intel hopes to get ahead of competitors, including TSMC, which so far is taking a more conservative path. Interestingly, at one time TSCM beat its competitors in the same way: by relying on the then new EUV technology. At the same time, Intel refused to invest in this area and, as we now know, was noticeably inferior to its competitors in terms of the pace of development of new technological processes, and has still not caught up with them.