GoKawiilChina has started low-volume production of domestically developed immersion DUV lithography machines, with around five systems planned for this year and roughly 20 in 2027, according to a report from July 27, which wiped roughly $44 billion off ASML's market value.
The manufacturer was named as Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group by Reuters the following day, a state-owned company established in August 2023 with 7 billion yuan (around $1 billion) in registered capital that absorbed engineering teams from Huawei-affiliated startup Yuliangsheng and state scanner maker SMEE. The first units are due at SMIC, Hua Hong, and CXMT this year for production-line validation rather than volume output, but the machines are far from matching ASML's models and still require further testing.
Five machines represent about 3.8% of the roughly 130 immersion systems ASML deploys in a typical year (a class of lithography machines that put a super thin layer of liquid over the wafer during processing), with the European giant holding an estimated 98.7% of the total immersion market. The Chinese tool reportedly prints 28nm-class features in a single exposure and reaches 7nm, and theoretically 5nm, through multipatterning, the same route SMIC already runs on its installed ASML fleet. Neither company has confirmed the report, no machine has been shown publicly, and no throughput or overlay figures have been disclosed, against the 330 wafers per hour and 2.5nm overlay of ASML's current flagship immersion tools.
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SMIC’s scanner
SMIC has been running a domestic immersion scanner, developed under the codename Mount Everest, since September last year, when the Financial Times reported that China's largest foundry had begun testing the Yuliangsheng tool with production-line integration targeted from 2027 after qualification.
FT compared the machine against ASML's Twinscan NXT:1950i, a system that entered the market in 2008, which puts the design roughly a decade and a half behind the tools ASML sells today. Yuliangsheng, founded in Shanghai in 2022 with 1 billion yuan (around $149 million) in registered capital, is understood to have delivered three lithography machines to fabs for testing by late last year, but this hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Many of the critical components needed for the machines are still imported from Japan, and delays at those local suppliers are what have capped 2026 output at around five units. The 2027 target of 20 machines is therefore an ambitious target that assumes a domestic component base that hasn't been established yet, and the imported parts remain within reach of any future export-control round.
18% litho localization
SMEE's most advanced shipping product remains the SSA600 series, a 90nm-class dry ArF scanner that was in mass production as of May last year. The 28nm-capable SSA/800 immersion tool the company announced in 2023 has never been deployed, and a state-media claim of its successful development was deleted shortly after publication. In December last year, SMEE won a roughly RMB 110 million ($16 million) single-source government contract for a KrF scanner specified at 110nm resolution and 15nm overlay, a useful indicator of where its production-grade capability is at the moment.
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