Semicon Briefing

ASML top manager Frank Heemskerk publicly admits that the company sold literally not a single chip machine in Europe in 2026 – due to lack of new fab constructions. The tweet by EU politician Rob Roos (nearly 2,000 likes, 686 retweets) goes viral and increases pressure on Brussels to back the EU Chips Act 2.0 with genuine demand support.

ASML has received binding commitments from TSMC, Samsung, and Intel to transition to 12-inch photomasks and High-NA EUV machines (each ~$400 million) to enable production of larger and more powerful AI chips. Bank of America praises the deals as strong visibility for ASML's order backlog; Samsung plans DRAM deployment by 2028, TSMC follows thereafter – an industry-wide technology standard shift is emerging.

Qualcomm has officially confirmed it will manufacture its new 2-nm Snapdragon processors at both TSMC and Samsung, adopting a dual-sourcing strategy. This strengthens TSMC's and Samsung's leading positions in the high-end foundry market while also increasing Qualcomm's supply chain security.

At TSMC OIP 2026, Synopsys and Siemens independently announced expanded collaborations with TSMC for the A14 process node, including AI-powered design workflows, silicon-proven IP, and multi-die designs. The partnerships accelerate ecosystem development around TSMC's next manufacturing generation and raise barriers to entry for competitors.

Industry insiders report that TSMC is planning wafer price increases of 3 to 6 percent for 2027, while Samsung officially adds wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding to its DRAM roadmap. Both developments will noticeably impact cost structures for chip designers and OEMs and could fuel demand for alternative foundries.

ams-OSRAM, in addition to the known Infineon deal (sensor division, €570 million) and the Ushio deal (specialty lamps, €91 million), has now also divested its CMOS image sensor unit to indie Semiconductor for €40 million – a previously unreported third divestment as part of balance sheet cleanup. The company is thereby focusing entirely on photonics and microLED.