{"id":264852,"date":"2026-01-03T08:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/264852\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:35:11","slug":"could-this-equipment-maker-be-the-hidden-winner-of-the-ai-buildout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/264852\/","title":{"rendered":"Could This Equipment Maker Be the Hidden Winner of the AI Buildout?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">No one comes close to ASML&#8217;s lead in AI semiconductor manufacturing equipment.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The Dutch company&#8217;s technology is likely a decade ahead of that of its competitors.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">What&#8217;s more, ASML&#8217;s shares look inexpensive compared to the broader tech sector.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=52fdbcf9-987a-49aa-a9f5-d74b27fd3d2b&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-nonbbn-kp%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaedikp0000053%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_veh%3Dkeypoints_pitch_feed_yahoo%26ftm_pit%3D17670\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:10 stocks we like better than ASML \u203a;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">10 stocks we like better than ASML \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">There are plenty of flashy artificial intelligence (AI) companies for investors to choose from right now, and some could end up being great long-term investments. However, one angle in the AI boom that often gets overlooked is that there is a lot of complex manufacturing equipment that makes it all possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">One company that dominates this space is <strong>ASML Holding<\/strong>\u00a0(NASDAQ: ASML), which manufactures the equipment for semiconductor production. ASML is already benefiting from the rising demand for artificial intelligence processors, and could continue to be the winner as the AI buildout occurs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">While there are plenty of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/information-technology\/ai-stocks\/?utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=275dccff-68be-4489-9097-8500220d8ba8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:great AI investments;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">great AI investments<\/a> right now, here&#8217;s why ASML could continue to thrive as artificial intelligence infrastructure spending continues.<\/p>\n<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"A computer logic board with a robot image on it.\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"480\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj loader\"\/> Image source: Getty Images.         <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Technology companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/d\/data-center\/?utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=275dccff-68be-4489-9097-8500220d8ba8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:building new data centers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">building new data centers<\/a> to support their AI ambitions. The increase in spending is so high that <strong>Nvidia<\/strong>&#8216;s management believes AI infrastructure spending will increase by up to $4 trillion by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Much of the attention around AI spending focuses on how Nvidia will benefit from sales of its semiconductors &#8212; and it will. But by zooming out a little, we can see that ASML also benefits immensely from this spending, because Nvidia wouldn&#8217;t be able to make its processors without ASML&#8217;s equipment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The technical side of all this is that ASML builds extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet (High-NA EUV) machines so that its customers, including <strong>Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing<\/strong>, can produce the world&#8217;s most advanced processors. Since ASML is one of the few companies in the world capable of making this equipment, the company holds 90% of the market for advanced lithography machines, giving it a dominant position that can&#8217;t easily be overcome<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">This leading position has translated into impressive top- and bottom-line results for the company, with revenue rising 21% to nearly 23 billion euros, and diluted earnings per share up 40% to $17.38 per share in the first nine months of 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">And there&#8217;s little concern that ASML will lose its leading position any time soon. <strong>Morningstar <\/strong>research indicates that the company is a decade ahead of its competitors&#8217; technology, providing ASML with a significant lead in the semiconductor equipment market.<\/p>\n<p> Story Continues  <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">ASML has a long-term opportunity to benefit from AI that might not be fully appreciated. Consider that when ASML sells its semiconductor equipment, it stays in use for nearly three decades. The equipment&#8217;s longevity is a huge opportunity because ASML services the equipment it sells, making each sale a longtail revenue opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">ASML&#8217;s services revenue rose 39% in the first nine months of this year to 6 billion euros, accounting for approximately 26% of the company&#8217;s total sales. As more AI infrastructure is built in the coming years, ASML could make even more from its services revenue, and for years to come. That will help the company maintain its profitability and preserve its impressive gross margin in the low 50% range.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">ASML&#8217;s share price has increased by 49% over the past year, outperforming the <strong>S&amp;P 500<\/strong>&#8216;s returns of 15%. With those gains, you might assume that the stock is expensive, but ASML&#8217;s shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of 34 right now, making it a relative bargain compared to the tech sector&#8217;s average P\/E ratio of 54.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">ASML&#8217;s dominant position in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, high margins, and longtail opportunities to benefit from equipment services mean that buying ASML stock now and holding it for years to come is a great way to benefit from the current AI buildout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Before you buy stock in ASML, consider this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=928d3220-bae9-4856-9a95-9055f6114ad3&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-bbn-bn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0001162%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_yahoo%26ftm_pit%3D18417&amp;utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=275dccff-68be-4489-9097-8500220d8ba8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:10 best stocks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">10 best stocks<\/a><\/strong> for investors to buy now\u2026 and ASML wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Consider when <strong>Netflix<\/strong> made this list on December 17, 2004&#8230; if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0<strong>you\u2019d have $505,641<\/strong>!* Or when <strong>Nvidia<\/strong> made this list on April 15, 2005&#8230; if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, <strong>you\u2019d have $1,143,283<\/strong>!*<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 974% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 193% for the S&amp;P 500.\u00a0<strong>Don&#8217;t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=928d3220-bae9-4856-9a95-9055f6114ad3&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-bbn-bn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0001162%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D18417%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_yahoo%26company%3DASML&amp;utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=275dccff-68be-4489-9097-8500220d8ba8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:See the 10 stocks \u00bb;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><strong>See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">*Stock Advisor returns as of December 29, 2025<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/author\/2065\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chris Neiger;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Chris Neiger<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/legal\/fool-disclosure-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:disclosure policy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2026\/01\/02\/could-this-equipment-maker-be-the-hidden-winner-of\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Could This Equipment Maker Be the Hidden Winner of the AI Buildout?;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Could This Equipment Maker Be the Hidden Winner of the AI Buildout?<\/a> was originally published by The Motley Fool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one comes close to ASML&#8217;s lead in AI semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The Dutch company&#8217;s technology is likely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,9499,289,290,37342,18,19,17,135752,135751,10849,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-264852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-infrastructure","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-asml","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-manufacturing-equipment","17":"tag-semiconductor-equipment-market","18":"tag-semiconductor-manufacturing","19":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115830254650750512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}