loading
loading
Samsung Electronics made two moves in two days that both point at the same problem: keeping its memory and foundry lines on the leading edge as AI demand outruns conventional scaling. On September 8, Samsung and ASML announced an expanded partnership under which Samsung will put ASML’s High NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography into high-volume DRAM manufacturing by 2028 and join the industry effort to move from 6-inch to 12-inch photomasks. A day later, at the South Korea and France state summit in Paris, Samsung announced a strategic partnership with Mistral AI to run the French developer’s models on-premises across its chip operations, along with a lead investment in Mistral’s Series D round. Samsung High NA EUV for DRAM by 2028 and the 12-Inch Photomask Transition Samsung says it plans to introduce ASML’s High NA EUV systems into future DRAM high-volume manufacturing by 2028, which the two companies describe as the first such deployment in the industry. High NA raises the numerical aperture of the projection optics from 0.33 to 0.55, and the tighter resolution is meant to extend the DRAM scaling roadmap by simplifying process steps that today require multiple patterning passes. Samsung laid out where that scaling is headed in its 3D memory roadmap at FMS 2026, and High NA is the lithography piece that has to be completed first. In parallel, Samsung is joining the industry initiative to develop a 12-inch photomask platform for High NA EUV. The 6-inch mask has been the standard for decades, but High NA systems use anamorphic optics that halve the exposure field, so printing a full-size die on a 6-inch reticle means stitching two exposures together. ASML and Samsung say the larger 12-inch format is expected to raise fab productivity, lower chipmaking costs, and remove those stitching constraints, letting manufacturers use High NA without the throughput penalty. Samsung says it will work with industry partners to develop the mask technologies and supporting infrastructure the new format requires, drawing on its experience running EUV in both memory and foundry production. “The AI era is transforming the semiconductor industry and increasing the importance of technological innovation across the entire value chain,” said Young Hyun Jun, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics. “By further strengthening our collaboration with ASML, we are helping lay the foundation for the next generation of AI and semiconductor innovation.” ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet called Samsung “one of ASML’s most important innovation partners for many years,” and both companies said they expect to keep exploring collaboration in advanced memory and new manufacturing approaches. Mistral AI Models Running On-Premises Inside Samsung’s Fabs The second announcement puts Mistral’s models, including its flagship Mistral Large, to work inside Samsung’s semiconductor operations. Samsung says it will integrate Mistral’s AI services and solutions to develop customized on-premises models for what it calls intelligence-driven infrastructure, with the on-premises deployment chosen so that process technology and operational data stay entirely within Samsung’s own semiconductor infrastructure. The stated targets are practical fab problems rather than chip design in the abstract. Samsung says it will apply targeted models to defect detection and equipment optimization, with the goal of accelerating development cycles, manufacturing precision, and yield stabilization across its advanced memory and logic chips. As process nodes get more complex, the company argues, fast data analysis inside the fab becomes essential, and Mistral’s stack is meant to change how its chips are designed and manufactured. “Increasing complexities involved in AI chip design and manufacturing requires continuous innovation in semiconductor technologies,” Jun said, this time bylined as head of Samsung’s Device Solutions Division. Mistral co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said the company is “proud to support Samsung Electronics with our expertise in electronics and semiconductors, helping to improve how chips are designed and manufactured.” Samsung also led Mistral’s Series D funding round, taking what it describes as a strategic equity stake to support long-term technology collaboration. Samsung did not disclose the round size or its share. The investment puts Samsung alongside its own lithography supplier on Mistral’s cap table: ASML led Mistral’s Series C exactly one year earlier, in September 2025, with a 1.3 billion euro investment for roughly an 11 percent stake. Mistral has been building out its own infrastructure as well, with Mistral Compute AI factories on NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 and a deepening collaboration with Dell on enterprise deployments. Taken together, the two announcements show Samsung buying capability on both ends of the fab: the lithography that determines how small the next DRAM cell can get, and the models it wants watching the line once those tools are running.
document fetched 2026-09-10 02:56 · canonical https://storagereview.com/news/samsung-high-na-euv-dram-set-for-2028-with-12-inch-photomasks-and-a-mistral-ai-series-d-lead