Dutch firm ASML clinches 1.1 bn euro deal with Taiwan's TSMC

Dutch-based ASML, a key global supplier of computer chip-making systems, said Sunday it has clinched an investment deal with Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC worth over a billion euros ($1.24 billion).

"ASML Holding announces that TSMC has joined (ASML's) customer co-investment programme for innovation, committing to invest 276 million euros in research and development," the Dutch company said in a statement.

The Taiwanese firm will invest a further "838 million euros in a five percent ASML equity stake," the Dutch firm added.

The deal is part of a five-year programme in which companies are invited to invest in ASML's research and development to help speed up advances in tools for making computer chips.

As part of the programme, ASML may also issue shares to clients reaching a total of a 25 percent stake in the company, which is based in Veldhoven in southern Netherlands.

Last month, US-based Intel Corporation announced it was putting in around 3.3 billion euros in ASML and buying up to a 15 percent equity stake in the Dutch firm, to speed up the development of technology for chips made on 450-millimeter diameter semiconductor wafers.

"TSMC is now our second partner," ASML spokesman Lucas van Grinsven told AFP, adding "with a 15 percent going to Intel and five percent going to TSMC, five percent is still available."

ASML operates in 16 countries and manufactures machines used to make integrated circuits and semiconductors. It has some 8,000 full-time employees.

Headquartered in northwestern Taiwan's Hsinchu, the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry and employs more than 33,000 people world-wide.