ASML Sees Memory Chip Orders Explode Past Logic for the First Time as DRAM Makers Scramble for EUV Slots
ASML continues to solidify its investments in AI-driven infrastructure, as demand for logic and memory chips continues to grip the industry.
ASML Says Advanced Logic & Memory Chips Will Continue To Be Constrained For The Foreseeable Future
During its Q1 2026 earnings call, ASML President & CEO Christophe Fouqet highlighted the company’s increased investment in the necessary tools to speed up advanced logic and memory chip production in the AI ecosystem as demand rises to an exponential scale as AI factories scale up to the next level.
Customers are adding capacity aggressively, and the reason behind it is to address the constraints across end markets, which include AI, Mobile, and PCs.
Breaking down its sales figures on a per-system basis for Q1 2026, the company reported a 51% share for memory-related end-use systems, while the rest of the 49% sales went to logic designs. EUV retains the premier technology with a revenue share of 66%, while DUV machines (ArF immersion) reported a 23% revenue share.
South Korean semiconductor factories were the busiest region with a 45% share, followed by Taiwan at 23%, and China at 19%. The USA was in 4th place with 12% share during Q1 2026. ASML supplies the majority of its EUV/DUV systems to Samsung, TSMC, SMIC, and Intel. ASML is restricted from selling its high-end EUV lithography tools to China, but DUV sales are allowed. However, that might change since US lawmakers are moving towards banning the export of DUV technologies to China.
Looking ahead with respect to the market, the growth outlook for the semiconductor industry continues to solidify, driven primarily by AI-related infrastructure investment. These investments are increasing demand for advanced Logic and Memory chips in many areas. And for the foreseeable future, demand will continue to outpace supply. This creates constraints across end markets from AI to mobile and PCs, which is driving our customers to aggressively add capacity.
Christophe Fouqet – President, CEO of ASML
Demand for bleeding-edge EUV and DUV machines in the memory segment also continues to rise as DRAM manufacturers move to newer process nodes. ASML continues to witness increased orders & also states that they are working with their partners to support their needs, and also offer “productivity upgrades” to optimize production output in the short-term.
The increase in memory chip demand comes from HBM vendors such as SK Hynix, Samsung & Micron, who rely on EUV for the manufacturing of next-gen standards such as HBM3E, HBM4, and HBM4E. The new standards play a vital role in powering upcoming accelerators from NVIDIA and AMD, which will be in hot demand.
In addition to expanding capacity, both advanced DRAM and Logic customers continue to further adopt EUV and Immersion deep UV on new process nodes, which further increases their demand for lithography. As a result, ASML’s order intake continues to be very strong, and we stay closely aligned with our customers to support their needs. At the same time, we offer customers productivity upgrade for their installed base to increase their short-term output requirements.
Christophe Fouqet – President, CEO of ASML
Looking at the future, ASML is working towards an updated Low NA EUV machine, which would output at least 330 Wafers Per hour. The system is expected to be delivered by the start of the next decade. ASML also released its new NXE:3800E PEP-E machine, which increases wafer output from 220 WpH to 230 WpH at a similar overlay.
Turning to technology, we continue to make very good progress on this front with several developments recently highlighted at the SPIE Advanced Lithography and Patterning Conference this February in San Jose. At the conference, we presented an updated Low NA EUV product road map that reflects improvement to both our short-term and long-term plans for these products. This includes the ability to reach at least 330 wafer per hours on low NA EUV at the start of the next decade, enabled in large part by our continued source power improvement as evidenced by our recent 1,000 watt source demonstration.
Christophe Fouqet – President, CEO of ASML
As per ASML’s roadmap, the company is expected to offer its advanced NXE:4200G Low-NA systems with a wafer output capacity of at least 300 WpH by 2029-2030. At the same time, the High-NA EVU system will see the rollout of EXE:5200D, delivering sub-2 nm class chips (A14 and beyond), with a wafer output capacity of at least 175 WpH.
ASML is also set to boost its chip output by 50% by the start of the next decade by increasing the power of light sources in its machines by 66%. Although this won’t happen till 2030, the company is working to address supply constraints by upgrading its existing and upcoming machines with higher wafer outputs.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech’s Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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