ASML and TSMC push 12-inch masks for High NA EUV

ASML and TSMC, in a joint press release dated 8 September 2026 from Hsinchu and Veldhoven, said they formed a collaborative industry initiative on 7 September, ahead of SPIE BACUS, to move High NA EUV photomasks from the current 6-inch format to 12-inch reticles.

This is a company press release announcing a mask-format initiative. It is not a shipping product launch for 12-inch High NA tools today.

The binding dates sit further out than a High NA headline usually implies. The companies target a 12-inch mask pilot line by 2031, then full lithography system readiness for advanced-node production by 2033. High NA still ships first on today's 6-inch masks.

TSMC intends High NA high-volume manufacturing for advanced nodes starting in 2030, still on 6-inch masks first. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said 12-inch masks come later to raise scanner productivity. TSMC Chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei framed the work as an industry-wide problem, not a solo build.

A companion ASML and Samsung press release the same day says Samsung is joining the 12-inch photomask initiative and plans High NA EUV in future DRAM high-volume manufacturing by 2028, which that release calls an industry first for DRAM. That 2028 DRAM target is Samsung's High NA adoption date, not the 12-inch mask timeline. Secondary coverage sometimes collapses High NA high-volume manufacturing into the present tense. The ASML and TSMC dates do not.

The same foundry-capacity tape includes Qualcomm's Amazon server-chip warrants, Mistral's Samsung-led Series D, and Nvidia's $105 billion OpenAI Ohio backstop. Capacity planning also showed up in Thailand's paused data-center projects.

If you plan AI foundry capacity or lithography roadmaps past 2030, treat the ASML and TSMC 2031 pilot and 2033 readiness dates as the binding 12-inch mask timeline, not wire shorthand that collapses High NA high-volume manufacturing into now.