ASML Holding NV lifted its annual sales forecast for the second time this year and laid out plans to increase production as a surge in artificial intelligence (AI) spending drives demand for the Dutch company’s chipmaking machines.
Net sales would grow to between 43 billion euros and 45 billion euros (US$49.11 billion and US$51.39 billion) this year, the company said in a statement yesterday.
That is well above the average estimate of 39.3 billion euros among analysts compiled by Bloomberg as well as the company’s prior guidance for annual sales of 36 billion euros to 40 billion euros.
Photo: Reuters
ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet’s challenge is keeping up with demand for the company’s intricate machines, which are used by the world’s largest chipmakers to produce semiconductors that train and run AI models, as well as the data centers that host them.
Fouquet announced plans to increase manufacturing capacity for its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines to meet a large number of orders lined up for 2028.
Demand has motivated ASML’s customers to not only increase their capital spending, “but also accelerate all their plans,” Fouquet said in a video transcript accompanying the statement.
“This really creates a need for more systems basically starting this year,” he said.
The Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company is targeting capacity of about 65 units for its second-most advanced tool — known as the low numerical aperture EUV — this year, higher than prior projections.
It also outlined plans to increase that by 30 percent for next year, and said ASML is “investigating” to increase capacity with another 30 percent the following year.
Intel Corp has begun to use its most advanced machine for chip production, ASML said.
The new equipment — known as high numerical aperture EUV lithography — provides more precise patterning to make advanced chips.
The move was “proof of the maturity of the tool,” Fouquet said.
The announcement comes after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said it would hold off on adopting the high numerical aperture EUV lithography tool through 2029, saying it was very expensive.
Net sales for the second quarter came in at 9.33 billion euros, ASML said.
Analysts had anticipated revenue of 8.85 billion euros in the period.
Net income was 2.9 billion euros in the second quarter, compared with 2.6 billion euros expected by analysts.
Gross margin for the year would grow to as much as 56 percent, up from the company’s previous forecast of as much as 53 percent, ASML said.
South Korea followed by Taiwan were ASML’s largest markets in the second quarter.
China’s contribution to the company’s net system sales fell to 14 percent from 19 percent in the first quarter, it said.
The machines ASML ships to China are eight generations behind the most sophisticated model, a fallout of the US administration’s curbs designed to hinder the progress of the Asian nation’s semiconductor industry.
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