ASML's $400 Million EUV Machine: 8nm Resolution, 90% Market Share

ASML is shipping a new extreme-ultraviolet lithography machine that patterns features down to eight nanometers and sells for $400 million apiece. The tool is a hulking system—more than 150 tons and over 200 cubic meters—that uses EUV light produced by vaporizing molten tin tens of thousands of times a second and operates in a vacuum.

How does the new ASML EUV machine work and what are its specs?

The new machine uses EUV light and mirror optics to create eight-nanometer features, and it costs $400 million per unit. It produces EUV by shooting lasers at tiny molten drops of tin tens of thousands of times a second, works in a vacuum because EUV is absorbed by air, and relies on precision mirrors that required Zeiss to invent new polishing and inspection techniques.

The system is physically massive: the piece is described as the size of a double-decker bus, weighing more than 150 tons and filling more than 200 cubic meters. ASML’s engineers describe it as a collection of mechatronic devices that hold mirrors in position with atomic precision. The company says this generation improves on prior EUV tools, which delivered about 13-nanometer resolution; the new machines reach eight nanometers, roughly the width of 40 silicon atoms.

How did ASML get to EUV and who buys these machines?

ASML pursued EUV after decades of smaller-wavelength moves, and the effort took 16 years and about $10 billion in R&D before the first machines reached the market in 2017. Around 2001 ASML committed to EUV when other vendors retreated; the project ultimately required new optics, vacuum engineering, and a laser-driven tin source to create the necessary wavelength.

When EUV debuted in 2017 the first machines cost well over $100 million. The technology found a huge buyer base after AI workloads ballooned demand for denser chips: ASML sold nearly 50 EUV machines in 2025 and pulled in nearly $40 billion in revenue that year, and the company’s market capitalization was over half a trillion dollars as of press time. ASML now produces about 90 percent of all chip-lithography tools worldwide, making it nearly unavoidable for modern fabs.

Why does this matter for chips and geopolitics?

ASML’s tools are central to shrinking transistor features, which is a core route to faster and more energy-efficient chips; its machines have been credited with helping to keep Moore’s Law moving. The AI industry created sharp demand for high-end chips, and EUV made it easier and faster to produce the GPUs and other processors large AI models require. Marco Pieters, ASML’s CTO, said, "I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg."

That dominance creates geopolitical friction. The United States pressured the Dutch government in 2019 to block ASML from selling high-end machines to Chinese firms. China has since poured billions into trying to replicate EUV capabilities, and reports describe government projects assembling very large prototype tools. Experts note China would accept much lower throughput if it meant domestic capability: one former ASML engineer turned analyst said China could be "very happy to have a tool that does one wafer per hour and it costs them a fortune to run." Startups such as Substrate are also pursuing cheaper, smaller lithography approaches, arguing the supply chain is concentrated and expensive.

What to watch

Watch whether Chinese efforts produce an industrial-scale EUV tool or only low-throughput prototypes, and monitor ASML’s shipment and sales figures in the coming quarters. Also follow any progress from startups like Substrate that aim to build alternative lithography machines, and any policy moves that change export controls or broaden the list of restricted technologies.