Intel has reduced its stake in supplier ASML Holding to below 3 percent, according to an update from the registry of the Netherlands' Authority for Financial Markets (AFM) on Friday.

In July 2012, Intel announced a deal to invest $4.1 billion into ASML in exchange for 15% ownership, in order to speed up the transition from 300 mm to 450 mm wafers and further development of EUV lithography.

In December 2017, the AFM said Intel's stake had fallen below a 5 percent reporting threshold.

Intel, once the world's biggest chipmaker, appears to have given up efforts to lead the pack in EUV. The company was among the first to start EUV development in the late 1990s.

Intel is not expected to be inserting EUV anytime soon. The company is having difficulties ramping 10nm, and EUV in Intel's 7nm, expected several years from now, remains an open question.

In the meantime, Samsung and TSMC are pressing ahead with EUV, albeit cautiously. While Samsung and TSMC are developing EUV for introduction in 2019, the rest of the world's major chipmakers appear to be falling behind.