Intel invests €4.1bn in Dutch chip machinery maker ASML

Chip machinery maker ASML and American computer components maker Intel on Monday evening announced a €4bn agreement for the development of new generation product technology.

Intel plans to invest €3.3bn in the technological development of ASML. This will include an equity stake of no more than 15% in the Veldhoven firm.
ASML wants to sell a maximum 25% of its shares to Intel and other business partners. Intel will buy 10% of existing shares for €1.7bn and a further 5% under ASML’s 25% offer to its partners for a minority participation.
Accelerate
In addition €829m will be invested by Intel in ASML’s research and development programme. The aim is to accelerate by two years the availability of new technologies for a larger size circular wafer from which chips are cut and extreme-ultraviolet lithography. Both technologies are the key to producing smaller chips.
‘This is an enormous impulse for research and development in high-tech,’ economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen told news agency ANP. ‘It will create knowledge and jobs in one of the top sectors of our economy.’
The agreement is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2012, following a shareholder vote.
According to the Financial Times, the deal is ‘a sign of the industry’s anxiety about maintaining the pace of chip miniaturisation over the next decade’.