ASML Holding NV shares soared to the highest ever after orders in the fourth quarter far exceeded analysts’ expectations and the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker announced job cuts to boost efficiency.
Bookings in the fourth quarter were a record €13.2 billion ($15.8 billion), as artificial intelligence fueled demand for its most sophisticated equipment, the Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. That compares with an average analyst estimate of €6.85 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ASML, Europe’s most valuable company, separately announced it plans about 1,700 job cuts, mostly in the Netherlands with some in the US, as it seeks to streamline the organization. That represents about 4% of the company’s workforce.
“The last three months have brought a lot of clarity” about what AI means for the semiconductor industry, Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “Our customers start to believe that this AI demand is sustainable, and therefore they are moving to building capacity, and they are moving very aggressively.”
ASML’s shares gained 6% to €1,291.20 at 12:28 p.m. in Amsterdam, extending their year-to-date gain to 40%. The stock previously gained as much as 7.5% to a record intraday high. Japanese suppliers to ASML, including Lasertec Corp., Tokyo Electron Ltd. and Screen Holdings Co., also posted big gains.
ASML is the only producer of cutting-edge lithography machines that are needed to make advanced semiconductors, and counts all the leading chip manufacturers as customers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. and Intel Corp. Its machinery is integral to producing the Nvidia Corp. AI accelerators that are the backbone for training and running AI models in data centers. The Dutch company’s bookings are one signal of chipmakers’ confidence in future AI demand.
The AI boom has continued into 2026, defying concerns about over-investment and helping push ASML’s market value over $500 billion this month. Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among the companies that are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into building data centers, driving chipmakers to increase capacity and in turn stoking demand for ASML’s products. TSMC said this month it anticipates capital spending of more than $52 billion in 2026, much of which will be toward advanced manufacturing techniques.
More than half of last quarter’s bookings were for extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography machines, totaling €7.4 billion, ASML said.
Total net sales were €32.7 billion in 2025. Revenue is seen at between €34 billion and €39 billion this year, higher than previous guidance.
“ASML has knocked it out of the park when it comes to order numbers,” Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, said. “Given the strength of the order book, we fully expect it to raise guidance throughout the year.”
The company also announced a new share buyback program of as much as €12 billion through the end of 2028. That amounts to about 2.5% of ASML’s current market capitalization.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
BI analystsMasahiro Wakasugi and Takumi Okano
Last week, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang called the rush to build data centers that can power AI models the “largest infrastructure build out in human history.” There is a need for “trillions of dollars” of additional investment in coming years, Huang said at World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
China remained ASML’s biggest market in the fourth quarter, accounting for 36% of net system sales. The Chinese market is expected to fall to about 20% of revenue going forward, Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said in a call with reporters.
ASML has never been able to sell its EUV lithography machines to China due to US-led restrictions aimed at curbing the Asian nation’s progress in the semiconductor sector. It’s also restricted from selling its most advanced deep ultraviolet, or DUV, tools to the country. The machines it ships to China are eight generations behind most sophisticated model. Still, Chinese chipmakers have been buying up older equipment to make mature chips.
ASML won’t report bookings in future quarterly reports because the company argues the metric doesn’t accurately capture business momentum.
