Sure, they shelved it (Hard to compete with established players who can spread R&D over volume), but people were pretty amazed at how well Samsung did entering that market from a quality standpoint.
Why does that matter? Because that indicates they have plenty of skill in lens manufacture, which is another critical component to a good fab.
But the difference is that ASML + Carl Zeiss absolutely run the market.
Nikon has about 10% market share, and Canon 5%. The rest is basically ASML.
The thought on my mind is that any one of the major American semiconductor equipment manufacturers could partner with either of the two Japanese optics houses. Canon is worth about US $25B, and its semiconductor business generates about a fifth of its revenue. It's big enough to be useful, but small enough to be acquirable.
This. Samsung is another company like Amazon that takes long view and flywheel to another level. And to answer question to comment below. Yes at one point Samsung was trying to make their own EUV Scanner, if you consider their NAND and DRAM scale it should comes as no surprise. And Samsung has their own Chemical Subsidiary along with dozen of others for their Foundry. They are taking vertical integration to an extreme.
And that is speaking as someone who dont particularly like Samsung. But Credit where Credit's due.