ASML has reportedly decided to raise prices on spare parts for the EUV and DUV lithography systems it supplies to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix by a flat 10%. According to a report by the Korean semiconductor outlet The Elec on October 10, the new prices will apply to supplies from January 2027, and both companies accepted the increase after discussions with their procurement departments. The price revision affects not the cost of buying new manufacturing equipment, but the cost of keeping already-operating equipment running in fabs. ASML's financial results show that its service and upgrade business accounts for roughly 30% of revenue and carries a higher gross margin than equipment sales. As chipmakers expand capital spending on the back of AI demand, maintaining and upgrading installed systems has become an important source of revenue for ASML, alongside sales of new equipment.
ASML Reportedly Raising Spare-Parts Prices for Korean Customers by a Flat 10% From January 2027
According to The Elec's exclusive report, ASML's headquarters presented a proposed spare-parts price increase to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix through its Korean subsidiary in early September 2026. The price revision was then decided after discussions with the two companies' procurement departments.
The increase covers all spare parts for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) and DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography systems supplied to Korea. It reportedly includes not only consumables that are replaced regularly, but also major components that must be replaced after failures or performance degradation.
Lithography systems are chipmaking tools that use light to transfer fine circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. Inside are many components, including optical parts such as lenses and mirrors, light sources, and precision drive mechanisms. Because these parts must be replaced to maintain a system's performance and uptime, the price increase will also affect the day-to-day operating costs of chip fabs.
According to The Elec, ASML has until now reviewed prices on an individual basis for affected parts when raw material prices surged or when specific materials were hard to source. A flat 10% increase across all spare parts is therefore unusual, the outlet says.
As for the background to the increase, an anonymous industry source interviewed by the outlet suggested that, in addition to rising prices of the materials and components that make up the parts, ASML may also be seeking to raise its margins given its customers' strong earnings.
However, this is the view of an industry source, not an explanation officially given by ASML's management as the reason for the price revision. In addition, no specific price list or individual contract terms have been made public, and it is unclear whether similar increases will be applied outside Korea.
ASML's Service and Upgrade Business Is About 30% of Revenue, With Higher Margins
The key to understanding this price increase is ASML's revenue structure. The company earns substantial revenue not only by selling new lithography systems, but also by maintaining, repairing, and upgrading the performance of systems already installed at customers' fabs.
According to ASML's "Statutory Interim Report 2026", revenue from its service and field option business in the first half of 2026 was €5,249.2 million, up 28.1% from the same period a year earlier. Its share of total company revenue reached 29.0%.
This business includes not only maintenance and repair of delivered systems, but also upgrades that raise system performance and productivity at customers' fabs.
Calculating gross margin from first-half 2026 revenue and cost of sales, the service and upgrade business comes to 60.3%, well above the 47.0% for system sales.
| ASML business segment | Revenue (€ million) | Cost of sales (€ million) | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service and field options | 5,249.2 | 2,084.9 | 60.3% |
| System sales | 12,844.2 | 6,803.1 | 47.0% |
These figures are based on EU-IFRS results on page 5 of ASML's first-half 2026 (through June 28) financial report. Gross margin is calculated as (revenue − cost of sales) ÷ revenue × 100, rounded to one decimal place.
The results show that ASML's service and upgrade business plays an important role not only in terms of revenue scale but also profitability. It delivers a higher gross margin than system sales, making the business of maintaining and improving already-delivered systems a key pillar of the company's profits.
However, the 60.3% figure is not the margin on spare parts alone. It is the gross margin for the entire business segment, including system maintenance services and performance upgrades, and it differs from an operating margin, which deducts items such as R&D and selling and administrative expenses.
The figures are also first-half results under EU-IFRS, so the accounting standard and scope differ from the company-wide margins ASML announces under US GAAP. They simply compare the system sales and service and upgrade businesses under the same accounting standard, and do not indicate how much profit the 2027 price increase will add.
Fabs Can't Easily Stop Lithography Systems, Which Underpins ASML's Bargaining Power
There are circumstances specific to chipmaking equipment maintenance behind ASML's ability to raise spare-parts prices.
In its explanation of customer support on its official website, ASML says that when a lithography system goes down, customers can lose thousands of euros per minute. It says it therefore responds to more than 99% of spare-parts requests within 24 hours, providing maintenance services tailored to customers' production plans.
What matters to a chip fab is not only buying parts cheaply. How quickly a failed system can be restored and whether stable uptime can be maintained also have a large effect on manufacturing costs.
Even if spare parts could be bought cheaply, if delivery or repair takes a long time and a system is down for an extended period, the loss could exceed the difference in part prices. As a result, an equipment maker stays deeply involved in customers' production after delivery through its maintenance expertise and spare-parts supply system.
This structure is likely one reason ASML can maintain a favorable position in price negotiations. However, it has not been made clear how much maintenance cost or supply risk is built into the reported 10% increase.
The increase also covers DUV lithography systems, not just EUV.
According to ASML's explanation of EUV lithography, EUV is used in the chipmaking process particularly to form fine and complex circuit patterns. For many other steps, DUV lithography systems continue to be used. The two are expected to be used side by side for a long time to come.
In addition, ASML's DUV product lineup includes performance upgrades for 3D NAND manufacturing processes.
In other words, if spare parts for both EUV and DUV go up in price, costs could be affected not only for making cutting-edge chips, but also for sustaining existing manufacturing processes such as DRAM and NAND flash.
That said, the DUV lithography market also has competing products, such as Nikon's ArF immersion scanners. It would not be accurate to apply ASML's strong market dominance in EUV lithography to the entire DUV market.
Still, choosing the maker of newly introduced equipment is a different matter from procuring spare parts for ASML systems already running in a fab. Even where competing makers exist, existing systems' spare parts cannot necessarily be easily switched to other companies' products.
AI Demand Is Driving Fab Expansion, Boosting Service and Upgrade Business Too
Behind the growth of ASML's service and upgrade business is rising capital spending by chipmakers in response to AI demand.
In materials for the July 15, 2026 earnings presentation, ASML CFO Roger Dassen said he expects service and upgrade business revenue in 2026 to grow by more than 30% from the previous year.
He cited the growing number of EUV lithography systems installed at customers' fabs and rising demand for upgrades that raise the performance and productivity of existing systems.
The figure of more than 30% is an outlook limited to the service and upgrade business, not ASML's company-wide revenue growth rate. It also refers to 2026, a period before the January 2027 spare-parts price increase reported here.
Therefore, the growth of the service and upgrade business cannot be explained by this price increase alone. In addition to the rising number of systems customers are installing, moves to raise the production capacity of existing systems are also contributing to higher revenue.
In the same earnings briefing, ASML explained that shortages and rising prices of DDR and HBM are encouraging DRAM makers to increase capital spending. As DRAM manufacturing processes become more advanced, DUV immersion lithography systems are growing in importance alongside EUV.
Once lithography systems are installed in new fabs, they require ongoing maintenance and will eventually become candidates for performance upgrades. AI-driven fab expansion therefore brings ASML not only new-system sales but also growing maintenance and upgrade revenue over the long term.
ASML itself is also expanding production capacity.
According to its second-quarter 2026 results announced on July 15, ASML plans to raise its 2027 production capacity for conventional Low NA EUV lithography systems by about 30% from the 2026 level, and is considering a further increase of about 30% in 2028.
This is a plan to increase the supply capacity of the lithography systems themselves, and it does not explain the size of the spare-parts price increase.
However, the more new systems are sold, the more systems there will be to maintain in the future. A structure emerges in which AI-driven growth in capital spending creates continuing demand for both system sales and maintenance and upgrades.
A 10% Spare-Parts Increase Does Not Mean a 10% Rise in Memory Prices
The price revision could affect chipmakers' manufacturing costs, but a 10% increase in spare parts does not translate directly into a 10% increase in DRAM or SSD prices.
What matters is how much of total chip manufacturing cost is accounted for by the spare parts being raised in price.
The report does not disclose the total amount Samsung Electronics and SK hynix pay for the affected parts, or the share of spare-parts costs in their manufacturing costs.
Assuming purchase volumes and other costs do not change, the effect on total manufacturing cost can be calculated with the following formula.
Increase in manufacturing cost = cost share of affected parts × 10%
For example, if the cost of the affected spare parts makes up 1% of total manufacturing cost, a 10% rise in part prices would raise total manufacturing cost by 0.1%.
Of course, this is a hypothetical to explain the calculation method, not an estimate of the actual cost structure of Samsung Electronics or SK hynix.
Furthermore, if performance upgrades to manufacturing equipment increase the number of wafers that can be processed in the same amount of time, the manufacturing cost per wafer could fall.
Actual manufacturing costs also change with improvements in yield and reductions in equipment downtime. So even if the purchase price of spare parts rises, there is room for productivity improvements to absorb part of the burden.
Whether chipmakers absorb the added cost themselves or pass it on in selling prices will also depend on supply and demand for products such as DRAM and HBM, contract terms with customers, and the competitive environment.
The focus going forward is how much the 2027 spare-parts increase affects chipmakers' manufacturing costs and margins. Even if maintenance costs rise, improvements in equipment uptime and productivity could limit the impact on per-unit manufacturing cost.
As chipmakers expand capital spending on the back of AI demand, the costs of maintenance and performance upgrades after installation are becoming as important as the purchase price of the equipment itself. The report suggests that when thinking about chip manufacturing costs, it is necessary to look not only at investment in new equipment but also at the cost of keeping existing equipment running over the long term.