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28 Jan 2026
The Dutch maker of semiconductor lithography equipment has become Europe's most valuable company.
ASML has posted record-breaking sales, profit, and orders in its latest financial quarter, with the Dutch firm’s management reporting a renewed confidence in the sustainability of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-out.
At €9.7 billion, the Veldhoven-headquartered company’s sales in the closing three months of 2025 were up from €9.3 billion in the prior year, meaning that full-year sales came in at €32.7 billion - up from €28.3 billion in 2024 and another record total.
Those figures were all roughly in line with previous expectations, but CEO Christophe Fouquet highlighted a significant change in market sentiment recently, saying to ASML’s in-house videographer:
“The market outlook has notably improved in the last few months. This is especially true when it comes to the build-up of the capacity for AI applications, being data centers or other infrastructure.”
For ASML, that means additional demand for high-end logic and memory chips that can only be produced using the firm’s state-of-the-art laser-powered extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools, where it has established a monopoly position.
“Altogether, we see a very positive dynamic,” Fouquet added. “I think [there is] a strong belief that the AI demand is real and a preparation for that, with a major addition of capacity [in] the short term. This will start in 2026 and will last beyond that.”
Stock price surge
With key customers Intel and TSMC both indicating an uptick in spending on their chip manufacturing capability in recent weeks, ASML’s stock price has risen in value sharply, cementing the company’s position as Europe’s most valuable publicly traded company, ahead of luxury goods firm LVMH, German software giant SAP, and Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceuticals firm behind the development of the fat-busting drug Ozempic.
Up nearly 40 per cent over the past month alone, ASML's stock is now trading at an all-time high of close to $1500 on the Nasdaq, a price that implies a market capitalization of more than $550 billion.
The recent upturn in business confidence has prompted the ASML executive team to forecast a further increase in annual sales for 2026, something that Fouquet had previously indicated was not a foregone conclusion.
He and CFO Roger Dassen now suggest that, depending on exactly how the AI infrastructure boom and geopolitics turn out this year, sales revenues will end up somewhere between €34 billion and €39 billion.
The latest report details how ASML actually sold significantly fewer new lithography tools in 2025 than in 2024 - down from 380 to 300 - but that smaller figure includes a higher proportion of the more expensive EUV equipment.
High-NA EUV adoption
That shift towards EUV is also responsible for a large rise in after-sales service revenues relating to the highly complex tools, which are regularly upgraded to support faster throughput of semiconductor wafers.
The EUV tools used in volume production are about to get even more complex, with the arrival of high-numerical aperture (high-NA) systems that rely on giant reflective optics produced by key partner Zeiss and will be capable of further shrinking device features.
“Looking at high-NA, customers continue to make good progress on the qualification,” Fouquet noted. “A lot of customers are finalizing their research and development phases with the EXE:5000 [tool].
“Intel has reported that they have accepted their first EXE:5200B, which means, basically, they have the first tool that will be used in high-volume manufacturing. And other customers are going to also get that tool in their hands very, very quickly.
“So the qualification of the tool is going well. Imaging, performance, overlay performance, everything is looking good for our customers right now.”
Job cuts imminent
Despite the latest surge in sales and an accompanying rise in annual pre-tax profits from €9 billion to €11.4 billion, the company is now looking to streamline its operations, and announced actions that are likely to result in 1700 net job cuts, largely impacting ASML’s IT department.
“The feedback from our colleagues, our suppliers and our customers shows that our ways of working have, in some cases, become less agile,” explained the firm’s management team.
“Engineers in particular have expressed their desire to focus their time on engineering, without being hampered by slow process flows, and restore the fast-moving culture that has made us so successful.
“ASML continues to grow and will need to create roles as required to meet customer demand for new machines and servicing, including in manufacturing, customer support and sales."
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