Samsung already bought the tools, and then said it would use them in 2030

Samsung Electronics says it will use High-NA EUV, the next generation of lithography tools, in volume production starting at its 1nm process. That pushes back a plan to bring the tool in at 2nm and 1.4nm, and 1nm volume production is set for around 2030. Park Chang-min, a Master at the company, laid out the roadmap on August 11 at a next-generation lithography conference in Suwon. He said Samsung had hoped to apply High-NA in volume production at 2nm and 1.4nm, but that the technology still needs more refinement.

What lithography actually does

Lithography prints circuit patterns onto a wafer with light. The shorter the wavelength, the finer the line it can draw. Argon fluoride, the workhorse source, has a wavelength of 193 nanometers, while EUV is 13.5, roughly one thirteenth of it. Patterns that argon fluoride has to print in several passes can be printed by EUV in one. Fewer passes means lower cost and higher output. High-NA is the next version of that EUV tool. NA describes how widely the optics gather and focus light, and the larger it is, the finer the line.

The tools were already under contract

What moved is not the purchase. Last October the Taiwanese research firm TrendForce reported that Samsung had agreed to buy two of ASML's High-NA machines, the EXE:5200B, for about 1.1 trillion won. The stated use at the time was 2nm foundry production, with the Exynos 2600 and Tesla's AI chip named alongside it.

Samsung reportedly purchasing two ASML High-NA EUV tools for mass production by 1H26 (TrendForce, 2025-10-16)

출처: trendforce.com

On that reporting, the second machine should have arrived this half and gone onto a 2nm line. This week's roadmap moves that seat to A10. The A stands for angstrom, and A10 is 1nm. It reads as the same tools staying in research and pilot work for longer.

Intel is putting it into 14A

The clocks of the three big logic makers are not running together.

The same machine sits in front of both, and what splits is the judgment of whether it is ready. TSMC stands furthest back. It has been reported to be holding off on cost grounds, and TrendForce wrote that the company plans commercial deployment from 1.4nm.

ASML expects first High-NA EUV chips within months as TSMC delays adoption over cost concerns (AnySilicon, 2026-05-26)

출처: anysilicon.com

When a tool that costs hundreds of millions of dollars goes onto a production line touches cost and yield at the same time. Go early and you buy learning time, but the bill has to ride on the chips you sell. Go late and you save the money and lose the learning.

Two forks between here and 2030

Samsung is already in volume production at 2nm, with 1.4nm set for 2029 and 1nm for 2030. If High-NA goes into a line before that, this week's statement will have been pulled forward, and if it is still not in a line in 2030, the gap between buying the tools and using them will have passed five years. Either way the evidence will be the number of machines standing on a line, not what is said at a conference.