ASML is looking at a strong year of sales – Copyright AFP Lionel BONAVENTURE<\/p>\n
Richard CARTER<\/p>\n
Dutch tech giant ASML, which makes cutting-edge machines to manufacture semiconductor chips, said Wednesday that rapidly expanding AI-related investments had pushed up net profits as it also hiked its sales forecast for 2026.<\/p>\n
ASML, Europe\u2019s biggest tech firm by market value, is a critical cog in the global economy, as the semiconductors crafted with its tools power everything from smartphones to missiles.<\/p>\n
In its latest quarterly earnings statement, the Dutch-based firm reported net profits of 2.76 billion euros ($3.25 billion), compared to 2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe semiconductor industry\u2019s growth outlook continues to solidify, driven by ongoing AI-related infrastructure investments,\u201d said the firm\u2019s CEO Christophe Fouquet.<\/p>\n
The company raised its prediction for full-year sales to between 36-40 billion euros from a previous estimate of 34-39 billion euros.<\/p>\n
That forecast range \u201caccommodates potential outcomes of ongoing discussions around export controls\u201d, said Fouquet.<\/p>\n
ASML has been caught in the crossfire of a tech spat between the United States and China and has previously warned its Chinese sales would \u201cdecline significantly\u201d this year.<\/p>\n
Washington is leading efforts to curb high-tech exports to China over fears they could be used to bolster the country\u2019s military.<\/p>\n
Beijing has reacted furiously to the measures, describing them as \u201ctechnological terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
A breakdown of ASML figures shows that 33 percent of sales went to China in 2025, compared to 41 percent in the previous year.<\/p>\n
China was the firm\u2019s top customer in both years.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Another growth year\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The firm said total revenue in the first quarter was 8.77 billion euros, at the \u201chigh end\u201d of what the company had earlier predicted.<\/p>\n
This compared to 7.8 billion in the first quarter of last year and 9.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n
The company issued a new forecast for the second quarter, of between 8.4 billion and 9.0 billion euros.<\/p>\n
Fouquet said ASML customers were \u201caccelerating their capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond\u201d, resulting in a \u201cvery strong\u201d order intake for the firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese business dynamics underpin our expectation that 2026 will be another growth year for all our businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In January, ASML announced a shake-up in its organisation that was expected to result in the loss of around 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands and United States, mainly from leadership roles.<\/p>\n
The firm employs roughly 44,000 staff worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASML is looking at a strong year of sales – Copyright AFP Lionel BONAVENTURE Richard CARTER Dutch tech…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[65,6,2929,670,2792],"class_list":{"0":"post-3035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asml","8":"tag-asml","9":"tag-netherlands","10":"tag-results","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-wireless"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}