According to an anonymous industry source quoted by the Korean media Herald Business Newspaper, Samsung Electronics has signed a contract with semiconductor equipment maker ASML on January 15 to purchase about 20 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment for US $ 3.38 billion. This data refreshed the forecast of Samsung ’s purchase of 15 units in October last year, higher than the initial plan.
Sources said that these EUV equipment will be delivered to Samsung within two years for the foundry business and the production of next-generation DRAM. It is reported that Samsung Electronics will first use EUV equipment to produce DRAM at the end of this year.
In 2012, Samsung Electronics acquired a 3% stake in ASML and contributed to the development of lithography machines. In order to surpass the foundry leader TSMC, based on such a bold investment, it is critical to attract customers by providing technological competitiveness. Samsung Electronics' customers include Qualcomm, Nvidia, IBM, and Sony, but TSMC has all taken orders for Apple's iPhone chips, and Huawei Hisilicon is also a very old customer.
Previously, Samsung Electronics planned to invest 133 trillion won to upgrade the semiconductor business by 2030. According to the plan, 73 trillion won of the 133 trillion won investment is technology research and development costs, and 60 trillion won is the construction of the fab infrastructure, which is expected to create 15,000 jobs. Samsung ’s goal is to reach 2030 Not only to keep the lead in memory chips, but also to become leaders in logic chips.