EU fab tool makers get reprieve in EU-U.S. tariffs deal — ASML and others to be exempted from 15% duty

ASML
(Image credit: ASML)

The trade agreement signed by the U.S. President and the President of the European Commission earlier this week imposes a 15% tariff on virtually all goods made in Europe and shipped to America, except several groups of products that include semiconductor production equipment, which will be subject to zero-for-zero tariffs. As a result, tools made by companies like ASML will not get more expensive in the U.S.

"We have also agreed on zero-for-zero tariffs on a number of strategic products," a statement by the European Commission reads. "This includes all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generics, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. And we will keep working to add more products to this list."

If the U.S. had imposed a 15% tariff on ASML's lithography, metrology, and inspection equipment, it would have significantly raised costs for domestic chipmakers — adding roughly $13 million to each DUV tool and up to $40 million per EUV machine — meaning hundreds of millions of additional costs per advanced fab, such as those built by Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. While GlobalFoundries and Texas Instruments do not buy EUV systems, they would still have to invest significantly more money in new fabs than they expected originally.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.