Canon intends to raise production of semiconductor lithography systems by 1.5 to two times in 2027 over this year, according to reporting by Jiji Press. The company is expected to ship 227 units in 2026.
The expansion rests on a plant Canon finished in 2025 at Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo. The company has not published a formal output forecast for next year.
This is not a race for the leading edge. Extreme ultraviolet tools, the machines that print the smallest features on advanced logic, are almost entirely supplied by ASML. Canon holds the largest share of i-line systems instead, the older and far cheaper equipment that makes memory and power chips.
That niche is where the demand is building. Power semiconductors for electric vehicles and grid hardware, alongside mature memory, are all patterned on i-line and its near neighbours. AI buildouts have pulled capacity away from those lines, pushing foundries to add tools for the parts that keep getting scarcer.
The timing matches a broader equipment squeeze. Tool makers across the supply chain have reported order books stretching into 2028, and component waits for some subsystems have run past 40 months. Every additional lithography machine Canon can build in 2027 is capacity that fabs cannot otherwise buy.
Canon’s gain is also a reminder of how lopsided the lithography business has become. The most valuable and most politicised layer of chipmaking sits with one Dutch supplier. The high-volume, low-margin layer underneath it still has room for a second vendor, and Canon is betting the AI boom will keep that layer busy for years.
