Fortuo News on the 28th, according to Taiwanese media reports this morning, in order to speed up the development of EUV-related advanced processes, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd plans to purchase a total of 55 EUV lithography machines by the end of next year, which has far exceeded Samsung.

EUV lithography machine, also known as extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, is the core equipment for manufacturing chips below 7nm. At present, only Dutch ASML (ASML Holding NV) can produce this kind of lithography machine.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd began to use EUV lithography from the second generation of 7nm process, and then all the processes below 7nm will use EUV lithography. With the large-scale production of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd 5nm process, their demand for EUV lithography machine is also increasing.

By comparison, Samsung had less than 25 EUV lithography machines at the end of 2021, according to Taiwanese media.

According to the information disclosed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd at the annual technical seminar in August, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd accounted for 50% of the EUV equipment installed in the industry, and as of the second quarter of this year, ASML shipped a total of about 71 lithography machines, which means that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd installed (from obtaining parts to calibrating the machine, it will take less than half a year to put into use), there is still a shortfall of 25.

ASML plans to ship 22 lithography machines in the second half of this year, up to 50 for the whole of next year. In other words, by the end of next year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd intends to grab the supply of more than 1 of the 72 lithography machines of ASML.

More crucially, the price of an EUV lithography machine is about $120 million, that is, by the end of 2021Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd will spend more than 44 billion yuan to buy an EUV lithography machine, which is about equivalent to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's total income in the past two months.

As of press time, TSMC rose 1.55% to US $80.1.