ASML’s strong pipeline of orders restores faith in AI boom
Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML is soaring after reporting strong fourth-quarter results and a robust pipeline of new business, allaying fears of any abrupt retrenchment in AI-linked spending and sending shares about 5% higher in the premarket.
The European firm is one of the key industry chokepoints when it comes to expanding capacity as well as making more specialized and powerful chips.
Adjusted earnings per share beat projections, while fourth-quarter revenues surpassed every analyst’s expectation. But as we’ve seen a plethora of times this earnings season, a solid past means little if a company’s future outlook is dim. That’s far from the case with ASML.
Net bookings were more than double what the Street was looking for, with more than 40% of those orders for the company’s most advanced systems. And the midpoint of its full-year 2025 guidance for revenues of nearly $34 billion was also a little ahead of what had been penciled in.
In the press release accompanying these results, CEO Christophe Fouquet testified to the continued divide between demand for AI chips and ex-AI demand.
“Consistent with our view from the last quarter, the growth in artificial intelligence is the key driver for growth in our industry,” he said. “It has created a shift in the market dynamics that is not benefiting all of our customers equally, which creates both opportunities and risks as reflected in our 2025 revenue range.”
As we suggested, even if all the claims DeepSeek made about how efficiently it was able to produce its model were true, major industry players were unlikely to abandon their established plans to spend tens of billions on capex in the upcoming quarters. That’s poised to support demand in the more upstream parts of the industry for the near term.
