There is exactly one company on earth that makes extreme-ultraviolet lithography machines — the tools required to print the most advanced chips — and it is ASML. After reporting a strong second quarter, ASML has begun pressing its largest customer, TSMC, for higher prices, according to reporting citing The Information and Reuters. It also told some customers, including Chinese chipmakers, that it plans to charge about 10% more for its older deep-ultraviolet (DUV) systems. Some Chinese firms agreed. TSMC is resisting increases on both.
The leverage behind the ask is visible in ASML's own numbers. The company raised its 2026 sales forecast to €43–45 billion, up from prior guidance of €36–40 billion, and said its cutting-edge EUV systems are nearly sold out through the end of 2027. When a sole supplier's most advanced product is spoken for eighteen months out, the conversation about price is no longer a negotiation between equals.
What each reported figure in the standoff actually covers
- €43–45B · ASML 2026 sales guidance (raised)
- Revised full-year sales forecast, company-wide
Includes: All ASML systems, EUV and DUV, across all customers
Excludes: A breakdown of how much of the raise is price versus volume - ~10% · DUV price increase
- Proposed hike on older deep-ultraviolet systems
Includes: Reportedly already agreed by some Chinese buyers
Excludes: Any confirmed EUV price figure -- TSMC is resisting that separately, with no number reported - Sold out through 2027 · EUV order book
- ASML's own account of demand for its most advanced tool
Includes: Existing backlog for cutting-edge EUV systems
Excludes: Confirmation of a specific price ASML is charging or seeking on EUV
A monopoly leaning on a near-monopoly
This is an unusually pure test of pricing power, because both sides are close to irreplaceable. ASML has no competitor for EUV; TSMC has no serious rival for leading-edge foundry capacity. Normally a supplier that raises prices risks losing the account. Neither of these two can walk away from the other — TSMC cannot buy EUV anywhere else, and ASML cannot replace TSMC's volume. So the fight is not about whether the tools get bought. It is about how the surplus from the AI boom gets split between the company that makes the machines and the company that runs them.
ASML's chief financial officer, Roger Dassen, framed the runway plainly, citing a "pretty strong runway for potential price improvements going forward" for its Low-NA EUV systems. Read that as a company telling investors, out loud, that it believes it has been underpricing scarcity.
When the only supplier of a tool is sold out for eighteen months, the price question stops being a negotiation and becomes an announcement.
Why it reaches your chip
Tool prices are upstream of everything. A more expensive EUV machine raises the cost of a wafer, which raises the cost of a leading-edge die, which raises the cost of an AI accelerator, which raises the bill for the data center renting it out. None of this moves fast — equipment contracts and depreciation schedules run for years — but the direction is set. The AI industry has spent two years worrying about GPU supply and, more recently, memory. The lithography layer underneath both is where the most concentrated pricing power in the entire chain actually sits.
ASML vs. TSMC, sole supplier vs. dominant buyer
- Supplier
- ASML
- Buyer resisting
- TSMC
- CFO's own framing
- “Strong runway for potential price improvements”
- What's confirmed vs. not
- DUV move reported; EUV figure undisclosed
What is not established
These are reported discussions, not disclosed contracts. The 10% figure applies to DUV, where some buyers have reportedly agreed; the EUV increase TSMC is resisting has no confirmed number attached. TSMC has not publicly detailed its position, and neither company has published the terms. What is established is the structural fact underneath the reporting: the supplier is sold out, believes it has been underpricing, and has said so — and the one customer with the most to lose is pushing back. How that resolves sets the cost floor for advanced chips for years, whether or not the specific percentages leak.
- ASML, the only maker of EUV chip machines, is discussing higher prices with TSMC after a strong quarter.
- It plans roughly 10% higher prices on older DUV systems; some Chinese buyers have agreed.
- ASML says its EUV tools are nearly sold out through the end of 2027.
- TSMC is resisting increases on both EUV and DUV — a rare standoff between monopoly supplier and dominant buyer.
- Caveat: pricing talks are reported, not confirmed terms, and any increase flows into advanced AI-chip costs over time.