Snap up the strongest lithography machine Intel and TSMC a battle

In order to regain the throne of the "world's most advanced chip manufacturer" from TSMC, Intel preempted it, although the latest model of ASML lithography machine has not yet been put into production, but Intel has already paid for the reservation. Building a factory to expand production, was rumored to acquire GF, and now began to snap up lithography machines, recently, Intel in order to turn over in the chip war, frequent actions. This is not surprising, Intel CEO has already made a statement, "We don't waste this crisis."

Buy first

With more than $340 million in quotations, the price of the next generation of equipment of lithography giant Asma has reached a new high, more than 13% higher than the previous generation.

Even if it is a sky-high price, it does not affect the enthusiasm of chip manufacturers. On January 19, local time, Asma's official website showed that Intel has taken the lead in ordering one, the first in the industry.

As the core equipment for manufacturing chips, the advanced degree of lithography machine directly determines the process technology of the chip. Since the official launch of Asma's first mass-produced EUV lithography machine in 2017, Samsung's 7nm/5nm process, TSMC's second-generation 7nm process and 5nm process have all relied on the 0.55 numerical aperture EUV lithography machine for production.

With the chip manufacturers sprinting towards the 3nm process process, the requirements for lithography machines are also getting higher and higher, and it is necessary to rely on asma's new generation of high-value aperture (High-NA) EUV lithography machine EXE:5000 series.

The lithography machine ordered by Intel this time, the model is High-NA mass production EUV lithography machine EXE:5200, will use different lens systems, NA is larger, will be the industry's strongest lithography machine. An Asma spokesperson said the higher lithography resolution would allow the chip to shrink by a factor of 1.7 while increasing the density by a factor of 2.9. In the future, more advanced processes than 3nm will rely heavily on high-NA EUV lithography machines.

Asma said that the cost of "High NA" EUV is about $300 million per unit. The first prototypes will ship in 2023 and are not expected to be used in mass production until 2025.

In fact, it is not surprising that the first order was spent on Intel. In July last year, at the "Intel Accelerating Innovation: Process and Packaging Technology Online Conference", Intel announced that it would mass-produce the 20A process (equivalent to TSMC's 2nm process) in 2024, and revealed that it would take the lead in obtaining the industry's first High-NA EUV lithography machine.

However, TSMC and Samsung are not to be outdone. Previously, TSMC has purchased high-NA R&D EUV lithography machine EXE: 5000 from Asma, and the industry is expected to follow up with the order High-NA mass production EUV lithography machine within this year.

The battle to turn around

Obviously, Intel's rush to sell this time is to compete for the position of the strongest chip manufacturer. Previously in the 7nm field of competition, Intel is not as good as TSMC and Samsung, slightly inferior.

Intel 10nm was once considered to be the same generation of TSMC 7nm, and Intel 7nm was considered to be the same generation of TSMC 5nm. As early as April 2018, when Intel's 10nm process chip was difficult to produce, TSMC had announced the successful mass production of EUV process 7nm process chips. Six months later, Samsung also announced mass production of the 7nm EUV process.

In 2019, TSMC began trial production of 5nm process chips, and in the same year, Intel mass-produced 10nm. As for Intel's 7nm, in the latest plan, the expected production time is the second quarter of 2022. TSMC's 3nm chip will be mass-produced in the second half of this year.

The process continues to lag behind, and Intel does not have an advantage in upstream devices and downstream markets.

In May last year, three major chip manufacturers launched a fierce competition. After the semiconductor process entered the 7nm node, the EUV lithography machine became the key equipment, and TSMC obviously seized the opportunity before. According to statistics, Asma has mass-produced a total of about 100 EUV lithography machines in recent years, of which 70 are supplied to TSMC, accounting for the vast majority of the shares.

TSMC is also an absolute occupier of the market. In the third quarter of last year, TSMC won 53.1% of the global chip foundry market with revenue of $14.884 billion.

Similarly, TSMC also has a number of large customers. According to the Economic Daily, TSMC's production capacity in 2022 is very sought-after, and dozens of customers such as AMD, Apple, Nvidia, qualcomm have paid funds in advance to ensure that subsequent production can be carried out smoothly. TSMC is expected to make an advance payment of NT$150 billion (about 34.6 billion yuan) this year.

Looking at the entire semiconductor market, Intel's position is not as good as Samsung. On January 19, data research institute Gartner released data showing that the overall sales of the semiconductor market in 2021 increased by 25.1% to $583.5 billion, exceeding $500 billion for the first time, of which Samsung Electronics surpassed Intel to become the highest-revenue chip manufacturer.

Build a plant to store capacity

In the context of the global lack of cores, Intel has also tasted the pain of "backwardness". In the past two years, Intel has continued to exert its strength.

Last January, Intel changed coaches and Pat Kissinger was named the new CEO, who was Intel's first chief technology officer and worked for Intel for 30 years. At that time, Intel Chairman Omar Ishrak said: "This is a critical period for Intel's transformation, and it is the right time to give full play to Pat's technical and engineering expertise and make a change in the company's leadership." ”

At last July's press conference, Intel released a series of blockbuster content on process and packaging technology, and pointed out that it would take four years to catch up with the gap between TSMC and Samsung Electronics.

Mr. Sun, a semiconductor practitioner, told the Beijing Business Daily reporter: "Intel started with storage at the beginning, and then transferred to the processor with great success. And because of its self-sufficiency, it seems inadequate in the competition with Qualcomm, NVIDIA and ARM. Storage is no longer Intel's core business, focusing instead on smart chips. He also said that Intel was really forced to rush this time, just to return to the peak of the semiconductor industry.

In addition to the top-level architecture, Intel has also made great moves in production capacity. On March 23 last year, Intel announced the "IDM 2.0" strategy, announcing that it would invest $20 billion in Arizona, USA, to build two new fabs, and said it would build Intel foundry services.

Then, on Sept. 7, Pat Kissinger said that in the next decade, Intel may invest up to 80 billion euros in Europe to increase its chip production capacity in the region. In December, news broke that Intel was planning to increase production capacity worldwide, including additional plants in France and Italy, as well as a major production site in Germany.

Then the foreign media TheStreet also exposed on January 14, Intel will spend $1 billion to build a new wafer foundry in Ohio, according to reports, Intel Ohio New Albany plant covers an area of 1295 hectares, is expected to be built within ten years, if the factory news is finally true, this will be the largest enterprise in Russia since 1982 to set up a factory.

On January 19, Pat said in an interview that he was optimistic that the United States and the European Union would promote the proposal of government funding to support the construction of chip factories, and believed that the US and European governments should provide financial support to return chip manufacturing to the mainland, "We do not waste this crisis."

For the construction of factories and expansions, Intel is not soft. According to the data, Intel's capital expenditure is expected to be between $18 billion and $19 billion this year, and next year's capital expenditure is expected to increase to $25 billion to $28 billion, an increase of at least 30%. In the face of such a strong momentum, the Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted Intel to try to verify whether there was a clear factory construction plan and how it would develop after the expansion, but as of press time, no specific reply had been received.

Not to be outdone, Intel's competitors, TSMC, which is expected to invest $30 billion this year and $100 billion over three years, are not to be outdone. Of course, under the continuous surge in chip demand, the win-win situation of chip manufacturers is the trend of the times. Chipmakers such as Intel and Micron Believe that the global semiconductor boom can continue into 2025.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Yang Yuehan intern reporter Meng Yue