Japanese chemical giant JSR has announced plans to build its first EUV photoresist manufacturing plant in Taiwan, locating it near TSMC's main campus. The move addresses a critical supply-chain bottleneck: EUV materials production has historically lagged chipmaking demand, forcing foundries to wait on Japanese suppliers.
JSR's Taiwan expansion closes a geographic and logistical gap in the semiconductor ecosystem, reducing lead times for next-node scaling. As TSMC ramps 2nm and pushes toward sub-1nm research, securing photoresist supply adjacent to fabs becomes a key competitive advantage for foundries competing with Samsung and Intel in advanced nodes.