Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday its participation in a newly formed consortium led by Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML, with the shared objective of advancing next-generation chip production technologies. The South Korean tech titan stated that this partnership is designed to accelerate the development of 12-inch photomask technology, which is poised to replace the long-standing 6-inch photomask format that has dominated the industry for decades.

In an official statement, Samsung highlighted the history of fruitful collaboration between the two firms, noting: "Building on years of successful cooperation, the two companies will jointly push forward the research, development, and deployment of advanced technologies to meet the ever-growing performance and efficiency demands of advanced semiconductor manufacturing." This cutting-edge innovation is expected to significantly boost wafer fab productivity and lower overall chip production expenses, particularly at a time when demand for artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators and memory solutions is surging across the globe.

Commenting on the initiative, Samsung Electronics CEO Jun Young-hyun remarked: "The AI era is fundamentally reshaping the semiconductor landscape, making technological breakthroughs across the entire value chain more critical than ever. By deepening our strategic collaboration with ASML, we are laying the groundwork for the next wave of AI-driven chip innovation." As part of the agreement, Samsung intends to integrate ASML's High Numerical Aperture (High NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems into its mass production of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) for the first time by 2028. The adoption of High NA EUV technology is anticipated to deliver superior resolution, thereby enabling further scaling of DRAM process nodes, streamlining manufacturing workflows, and unlocking higher levels of production efficiency.