* ASML CEO expects first High-NA chip products within

months

* CEO says new technology is expensive but will pay off

long-term

* Intel ( INTC ), SK Hynix plan to adopt High-NA;

* TSMC says will stick with current technology for some

time

* CEO Fouquet says AI boom is driving chip demand

(Adds CEO quote paragraph 4, background paragraph 5-7,

commentary on AI paragraph 9-10)

By Toby Sterling and Nathan Vifflin

ANTWERP, May 19 (Reuters) - ASML expects the

first chips made with its next-generation High-NA EUV machines

to be delivered within months, Chief Executive Christophe

Fouquet said on Tuesday, as the Dutch company addresses concerns

about the new technology's costs.

The computer chip equipment maker's top customer TSMC

said last month High-NA machines, which can cost up to $400

million each, were too expensive to use for now. Fouquet,

however, expressed confidence in the technology's adoption.

"In the next few months, we will be looking at the first few

products, in memory, in logic, being exposed on the High-NA

system", he told a conference organised by research firm imec in

Antwerp.

"Those technologies are expensive. They are requiring

qualification. But they are always designed with the idea that

over time they will lower the cost of patterning," Fouquet said.

Demand from advanced chipmakers for ASML's EUV, or extreme

ultraviolet, lithography tools used to print tiny chip circuits,

has helped the Dutch manufacturer become Europe's most valuable

company. Chipmakers are now testing the High NA, or high

numerical aperture, version of the tool, which will be able to

produce features up to 66% smaller - similar to having a better

focus on a camera.

Intel ( INTC ) has been the most aggressive in preparing to

adopt ASML's High-NA tool, in an attempt to leapfrog competitors

TSMC and Samsung. Memory chip makers including SK

Hynix have also said they intend to use the new

technology.

TSMC has not ruled it out, but executive Kevin Zhang said it

will stick with ASML's current EUV product for the next several

generations of chips as the company keeps squeezing out advances

through innovative chip designs that don't require smaller

lines.

Fouquet said the artificial intelligence boom is expected to

keep chip sales rising by 20% per year in the coming years.

He acknowledged that some in the industry fear ASML's production

capacity may be a bottleneck in expanding chip production, as it

was during the COVID pandemic. But in a nod to TSMC and Samsung

executives who spoke earlier at the conference, he quipped that

they are the real bottleneck for AI as their firms must expand

production - and buy more ASML products.