TSMC will acquire a 5 percent equity holding in Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML for 838 million euros and invest a further 276 million euros in research and development of next- generation lithography technologies, ASML said.
The purchase will give TSMC access to machines under development that will reduce manufacturing costs and that the Dutch company says may prompt consolidation in the industry. Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, agreed to invest as much as $4.1 billion last month in ASML’s so-called co-investment program to fund innovation.
The investment is “long-term positive for TSMC,” Patrick Liao and Jason Ho, technology analysts at Nomura Holdings Inc., said in a note today. The investment implies TSMC will have “joint intellectual property rights of the critical lithography research and development in the future.” Read More