Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) have recently provided fresh evidence that High-NA EUV lithography is advancing in commercial manufacturing. At the SPIE Photomask Technology + Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography conference, the two companies announced several updates related to this technology and next-generation chip production.
While the update offers evidence of High-NA’s manufacturing readiness, Intel faces a financial test about whether production improvements translate into better foundry returns. For ASML, it is whether greater manufacturing readiness ultimately leads to broader customer adoption and demand.
Production Credibility
According to the companies, more than one million wafers have now been processed using High-NA EUV across early tool certification and testing, research and development efforts, and volume production on select layers for a subset of Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processors, code-named Panther Lake.
The products that have been manufactured on Intel 18A using High NA for select layers continue to deliver performance, the companies noted, meeting or exceeding comparable layers patterned using the NXE platform.
This offers Intel early production experience with the technology. Back in July, ASML noted how Intel was the first company to ship a high-volume logic product manufactured using ASML’s High NA EUV lithography technology.
The two companies also noted building on years of collaboration to bring together lithography ecosystem around larger-format masks. This will support future High NA EUV scaling. Currently, ASML faces a limit on how big of a chip they can print because they use a smaller mask.
A Reuters report backs this claim, noting how ASML intends to work together with major customers to produce its most advanced tools for developing the kind of large data center chips designed by Nvidia and others.
ASML is planning to show a pilot line with the larger masks by 2031 and have the new technology ready for high volume production by 2033.
ASML’s recent collaboration with Intel helps to validate its most advanced High-NA EUV machinery in active commercial production, supporting the case for broader industry adoption.
Bears have nevertheless argued that ASML’s High NA-EUV machines would face sluggish demand due to costs and execution complexity, but the recent Intel milestone of processing one million wafers helps address concerns related to manufacturing readiness.
ASML in Focus Following the News
Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Intel are moving forward with plans to use ASML’s High-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, prompting positive analyst commentary.
“The announcements are consistent with our High-NA adoption assumptions (5 tools this year, 6 next and 20 by 2030. While the announcements do not change our forecasts, they increase confidence that the ecosystem is aligning around a common High-NA roadmap. Intel’s production experience demonstrates that customers can use the technology with existing mask formats today, while the TSMC-ASML-Samsung initiative establishes a longer-term path to capture the full productivity benefits of High-NA.”
-Bank of America analyst Didier Scemama wrote in a note to clients.
Intel Still Has to Prove its Foundry Business
Intel’s problem is well-known, it hasn’t been able to turn Foundry into a profitable business yet. Its Q2 2026 report revealed a revenue of $16.1 billion, a 25% increase year-over-year.
Particularly for its foundry business, revenue was $5.8 billion, a 31% increase year-over-year. This was coupled with an operating loss of $2.1 billion, compared with $3.2 billion a year earlier. While the operating loss did narrow down, only $293 million of quarterly foundry revenue came from external customers. As per Intel, the increase in external revenue was largely due to Altera becoming an external customer following deconsolidation.
The numbers show that processing more wafers does not yet demonstrate that external customers will shift meaningful production to Intel.
For ASML, the risk isn’t High-NA adoption, but that widespread commercial use may take time. ASML’s customer, TSMC, recently announced its plans to introduce High-NA into manufacturing from 2030. The decision implies how even though customers may be technically validating this technology, they are also taking their time for commercial adoption.
At the same time, TSMC’s 2030 timeline also offers Intel a multi-year lead in gaining production experience with the world’s most sophisticated lithography tools.
What the Hedge Fund Data Says
Smart money sentiment offers support for both Intel and ASML. 140 hedge funds held ASML at the end of the second quarter, up from 133 in the prior quarter. As for Intel, 138 hedge funds held the stock, up from 112 in the previous quarter.
Overall, the latest milestone from Intel-ASML strengthens the case that High-NA EUV is moving beyond experimentation into practical chip manufacturing. ASML investors will now wait to see how much of this quickly translates into broader demand, while the test for Intel lies in turning its manufacturing progress into meaningful external foundry business.
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