Former Intel boss Pat [kicking] Gelsinger is trying to drag US lithography back into the fight with ASML.
According to The Information, Gelsinger has joined xLight as executive chairman, giving the laser startup a recognisable semiconductor face as it chases money and influence.
The company is developing free electron lasers for extreme ultraviolet lithography, the chipmaking black art where ASML currently owns the fancy end of the shop. Apparently, xLight is in talks to raise $350 million. It has told potential investors it plans to pitch ASML, TSMC, Intel and Micron to join the round.
That is a bold shopping list for a startup trying to muscle into a market dominated by one Dutch machine maker and a supply chain with more moving parts than a ministerial excuse.
Chipzilla’s former chief executive is not pretending this is a small engineering tweak.
“There was a terrible mistake made giving Cymer the ability to become a European-owned and controlled company,” Gelsinger said.
Cymer, once a US laser outfit, was bought by ASML in 2013. Since then, the Dutch firm has become the gatekeeper for the most advanced chipmaking tools on the planet. xLight wants to build a new kind of EUV light source that uses less electricity than current lithography lasers.
The US government has already taken an interest. xLight signed a letter of intent with the Department of Commerce for up to $150 million to support its work. That puts the startup neatly inside Washington’s latest plan to stop asking foreign suppliers nicely for technology it suddenly considers strategic.
xLight has dressed the project in the expected flag-waving language.
“Reviving Moore’s Law and restoring American leadership in light is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and with the support of the federal government, xLight will turn opportunity into reality,” Gelsinger said.
Dragging TSMC into the story makes sense. The Taiwanese foundry runs the world’s most advanced chip factories and knows better than most how painful lithography bottlenecks can become. Getting TSMC, ASML, Chipzilla and Micron to join the same funding round would be another matter.
ASML already owns the EUV throne, TSMC depends on its machines, and Chipzilla has enough wounds from its own manufacturing adventures. Still, xLight has one thing Washington likes. It offers the promise that a critical piece of chipmaking kit might again be built in the US.
That promise is doing a lot of work. ASML spent decades turning EUV into something customers could use without setting fire to their capex plans. xLight is betting that better lasers, government cash and Gelsinger’s contacts book can make the problem look less impossible.
