The chip manufacturing process has advanced below 7nm. Among these, the most critical core equipment is the EUV lithography machine. Currently, there is only Dutch ASML in the world (Asmak) Can be manufactured.

According to a report from Digitimes,TSMCIt is planned to purchase 55 EUV lithography machines by the end of 2021 to accelerate the development of EUV-related processes.

In fact, half of the EUV lithography machines currently in use in the world are in the hands of TSMC, and by the end of the second quarter of this year, ASML had shipped a total of about 71 lithography machines, that is, TSMC installation (note, it takes less than half a year from obtaining parts to calibrating the machine), and there is still a gap of 25 units.

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, TSMC plans to seize more than 1/3 of these supplies.

More importantly, the price of an EUV lithography machine is about 120 million US dollars (about 800 million yuan), that is, before the end of 2020.TSMC will have to spend more than 44 billion yuan to buy an EUV machine, which is roughly equivalent to TSMC's total revenue for the current two months.