Samsung takes 3 percent stake in ASML

[August 27, 2012]  AMSTERDAM (AP) -- ASML Holding NV says that Samsung Electronics Co. has agreed to buy a 3 percent stake in it for euro500 million ($625 million), following the lead of other key computer chip manufacturers Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.

In July, Intel bought 15 percent of the Dutch company, and earlier this month, TSMC bought 5 percent. Like the others, Samsung will also help ASML invest in research and development, contributing euro276 million euros in funding.

In all the three chipmakers have bought euro3.85 billion worth of ASML equity and contributed euro1.38 billion to the R&D program.

ASML is the largest equipment supplier to computer chip makers. It makes lithography machines, which use intensely focused beams of light to help map out the circuitry of computer chips.

[Associated Press]

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