This doesn’t seem plausible. Leading edge lithography requires you to be at (or beyond) the cutting edge in many realms - even with a breakthrough in one realm, I don’t understand how a startup could expect to catch up to ASML across the board in a few years.

Their website is light on technical details and heavy on nationalistic fluff, which does not lend much confidence.

Somewhere along the line people have to realise most of the cost in chip design goes to software. So while it is nice to have some competition to ASML, it wouldn't change the cost equation as much as people expect.

And yes, ASML also have their own version using X-Ray in the pipeline.

> US startup Substrate announces chipmaking tool that it says will rival ASML

Typical investor bullshitting. They have some pictures. No process. Nothing

Related:

Can Substrate disrupt ASML using particle acceleration?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/technology/can-a-start-up...

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45732431)

See also:

Return to Silicon Valley

https://substrate.com/our-purpose

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45741489)