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

ASML and TSMC want High NA EUV photomasks to grow from today's 6-inch format to 12-inch reticles, and they are asking the rest of the chip industry to help them get there.

The two companies said so in a joint press release dated 8 September 2026 from Hsinchu and Veldhoven. They formed the collaborative initiative on 7 September, just ahead of SPIE BACUS. Nothing in that note ships a 12-inch High NA tool today.

The dates that actually bind the mask switch sit further out than a High NA headline usually implies. ASML and TSMC are aiming for a 12-inch mask pilot line by 2031, then full lithography system readiness for advanced-node production by 2033. High NA still goes out first on the 6-inch masks already in use.

TSMC still plans High NA high-volume manufacturing for advanced nodes starting in 2030, and that first wave stays on 6-inch masks. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said the larger reticles come later, mainly to raise scanner productivity. TSMC Chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei called the work an industry-wide problem, not something one foundry can build alone.

Samsung showed up in a companion ASML press release the same day. It is joining the 12-inch photomask initiative and says it plans High NA EUV in future DRAM high-volume manufacturing by 2028, which that release calls an industry first for DRAM.

That 2028 DRAM date is Samsung's High NA adoption target, 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 capacity crunch is why Nvidia is backstopping $105 billion of OpenAI compute in Ohio and why Qualcomm is tying itself to Amazon with server-chip warrants. Bigger masks are a 2030s productivity bet. The wafers that matter first still run on 6-inch glass.

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