Dutch producer of chip-making gear ASML will collectively make investments 1 trillion South Korean received ($760 million) with South Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronics to construct a plant that develops cutting-edge semiconductor processing know-how in South Korea.
The announcement got here as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is within the Netherlands for a four-day go to which seeks to forge a “semiconductor alliance” between the 2 international locations.
ASML is the world’s solely maker of maximum ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines which are required to fabricate probably the most superior chips equivalent to these within the newest Apple iPhones that are manufactured by Taiwan’s TSMC.
“The technological innovation led by ASML is turning into a robust driving drive of the Fourth Industrial Revolution all over the world, and Dutch semiconductor firms equivalent to ASML and ASM are constructing new amenities for manufacturing, R&D, and expertise coaching in Korea,” South Korea’s presidential workplace mentioned Tuesday.
Yoon visited the headquarters of ASML on Tuesday with King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, and toured the manufacturing web site of next-generation EUV machines.
‘Turning level’ for Korea-Netherlands ties
Samsung is the world’s largest maker for dynamic random-access reminiscence chips, that are utilized in client units equivalent to smartphones and computer systems. South Korean chipmakers depend on ASML’s EUV machines to supply quicker and extra environment friendly chips than opponents.
The assertion additionally mentioned ASML will collaborate with South Korean chip large SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest DRAM chipmaker, to scale back energy utilization and prices for EUVs by hydrogen fuel recycling know-how.
Forward of his go to to the Netherlands, Yoon informed media outlet AFP that semiconductors are “the linchpin of Korea-Netherlands cooperation.”
“The Netherlands is house to ASML, which produces the lithography gear that makes semiconductors, and for years the 2 international locations have labored collectively ‘in an exemplary method,” the president mentioned at the moment.
“[This] will mark a vital turning level for the Korea-Netherlands semiconductor alliance.”
He mentioned this go to to the Netherlands will assist each international locations “set up a well-organized institutional framework that may intensively deal with world semiconductor provide chains,” whilst semiconductors emerge as strategic property and geopolitical dangers surrounding world provide chains develop.
