(News Bulletin 247) – The Dutch group delivered orders and results above expectations in the third quarter.

A key player in the semiconductor industry, ASML is above all the largest capitalization on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and even in Europe (ahead of LVMH), with a market capitalization of 340 billion euros.

The Batavian group has doubled SAP and LVMH thanks to a clear increase over the last six months (+45%). The company was able to benefit from the strength of the artificial intelligence theme on the stock market.

For example, its stock gained more than 7% on September 18 after Intel announced a partnership with Nvidia resulting in a contribution of 5 billion dollars to the specialist in microprocessors for PC.

Bank of America wrote that this agreement could be a game-changer for ASML because a healthier Intel means a healthier customer for the Dutch group. The hope was that Intel’s foundry business would be revitalized, Morningstar confirmed.

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Cutting-edge technologies

Remember that if ASML is linked to the world of semiconductors, the Batavian company does not produce chips strictly speaking. ASML designs machines used for photolithography, an essential technology for creating semiconductors. As Morningstar explains, it’s a “process in which a light source is used to expose the patterns of an integrated circuit on a silicon wafer from a photomask.” These beams of light make it possible to create tiny circuits on computer chips.

With the surge in semiconductor applications (due for example to the rise of 5G, electric vehicles or the development of connected objects) demand has obviously increased significantly in recent years for ASML.

The Dutch group’s products are thus purchased by the main semiconductor players such as foundries Samsung Electronics, Intel and the Taiwanese TSMC.

“EUV” (extreme ultraviolet radiation) lithography tools constitute the company’s new generation of products. According to the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), this process makes it possible to trace finer patterns to process ever more information, with a reduced wavelength. And therefore ultimately enable the production of more powerful chips.

“We believe ASML will remain the leading supplier of lithography equipment to semiconductor foundries for at least the next two decades. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Intel and Samsung redesigned their factories a decade ago to adapt them to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a costly and time-consuming undertaking. It is therefore unlikely that ASML be dethroned from its place in the foundry sector. Additionally, no competitor has yet matched ASML’s technological leadership,” says Morningstar.

Perspectives well received

The company’s stock market performance is improved by the third quarter results published this Wednesday, October 15.

The Dutch company published revenues of 7.52 billion euros in the third quarter, down 2% year-on-year. Gross profit reached 3.88 billion euros for a gross margin of 51.6% compared to 53.7% a year earlier, while net profit was generally stable, at 2.13 billion euros. According to Oddo BHF, revenues were slightly below expectations, while gross margin and profit exceeded them just a little.

Above all, ASML announced order intake of 5.4 billion euros with 3.6 billion euros for EUV devices, well above the consensus of 5 billion euros mentioned by UBS.

The outlook is rather positive. Chief executive Christophe Fouquet said fourth-quarter sales were expected between 9.2 and 9.8 billion euros and gross margin between 51 and 53%. This while the consensus was counting on 9.23 billion euros in sales for this period. For 2025, the company expects revenue growth of 15% and a gross margin of 52% thanks to a good fourth quarter.

Furthermore, “on the market side, we have seen continued positive momentum around investments in AI, which has also expanded to a greater number of customers, both in the area of ​​’leading-edge logic’ (semiconductors used for cutting-edge applications such as quantum, Editor’s note) and in that of DRAM (dynamic random access memory, data storage components for computer processors, Editor’s note) progress,” added the leader.

“On the other hand, we expect a significant drop in demand from Chinese customers, and therefore in our total net turnover in China in 2026, compared to our very good results recorded in this country in 2024 and 2025,” warned Christophe Fouquet.

The chief executive added that “the company did not expect its revenues to decline in 2026 compared to this year.”

Oddo BHF considers all of these comments to be positive.

In reaction to the publication, ASML gained 3.33% on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

“The current race for AI, which is driving the memory market and sales of logic chips (GPU/CPU), clearly repositions ASML as a key player in the sector, with a monopolistic position on advanced nodes and a solid long-term roadmap,” comments Oddo BHF.