Thiel-Backed Chip Startup Takes Aim at ASML's Dominance

Watch Thiel-Backed Chip Startup Takes Aim at ASML's Dominance - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00So this is a company called Substrate. It's based in San Francisco. It has been in stealth for a

00:05number of years and out of the gate has raised about a hundred million dollars at a one billion

00:09dollar valuation. It has a new form of lithography machine where the light source is a particle

00:15accelerator. By comparison, ASML's machine is extreme ultraviolet light. But what Substrate

00:22was telling me is that every component of their lithography machine is done in-house by them.

00:29They have not worked with any other tech companies. The images that you're showing are the wafer

00:34patterns. And basically, read the story. But what they're demonstrating is that the scale of those

00:40features on your screen are as good or better, sharp or as sharp or sharper than what ASML's high

00:48NA lithography machine is able to achieve. But again, the business plan is very different for

00:53Substrate. They want to not sell these machines to one of the chip manufacturers. They want to be a

00:58chip manufacturer, be the TSMC of America and American Foundry. And that is a long shot, to put it mildly.