ASML set to spend $300 million on Asia R&D center, says report
Peter Clarke
EE Times Europe
(09/25/2006 9:49 AM EDT)
LONDON — Dutch semiconductor equipment vendor ASML Holding NV is considering spending as much as $300 million to set up an R&D center for the Asia-Pacific region in Taiwan, having rejected South Korea as a location, according to a Taipei Times report, which cited an official at Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs as its source.
"The ministry is negotiating with ASML on the possibility of opening an R&D center here," the report quoted a ministry official, as saying. The report added that the official declined to be named.
ASML (Veldhoven, The Netherlands), world's leading supplier of lithography equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, already has technology centers in Europe at its headquarters and in the United States at the University of Albany (New York). Discussions between ASML and the Taiwanese ministry started in July the official said, responding to a report that ASML plans to spend about $300 million to develop an Asian R&D center in Taiwan.
ASML's investment has not been finalized but the $300 million sum would likely include acquisition of land for the project, the account reported the official as saying. The ministry hoped to close the deal by the end of October, the report said.
ASML is a close partner of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and the presence of numerous foundries and other chip makers on Taiwan would make the island a natural location for such an investment. ASML also announced high expectations for Q3 in July 2006 mainly on the basis of strong demand for immersion lithography systems. Immersion lithography is a technology about which TSMC has been enthusiastic.
ASML was thinking about establishing the center in South Korea, because Samsung is expected to overtake Intel Corp as the world's largest chipmaker in the near future, the report said, citing a report in the China-language Economic Daily News.
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