Dutch chip equipment maker ASML reported record third-quarter 2026 net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5 billion, with a 57.5% gross margin. CEO Christophe Fouquet said some customers want to place orders as far out as 2029 and 2030 because of AI investment. The company expects its planned output for 2027 and 2028 to fall short of demand and is looking at adding more capacity. It guides full-year 2026 sales of €44 to €45 billion.
What it means: ASML is the only maker of the EUV lithography machines needed for the most advanced chips, so its results are one of the best gauges of where AI demand is heading. Customers wanting to book orders for 2030 means chipmakers see demand as long-lasting rather than a bubble of a few quarters. For Europe, ASML is one of the few strategic strongholds in the semiconductor chain, and its success supports the case for European technology autonomy. For Greek businesses, the direct consequence is that AI compute will stay in short supply for years. Anyone planning services that depend on GPUs or premium models should budget for persistently high costs and consider smaller, cheaper models for tasks that do not need top performance. For investors weighing Greek hardware startups, the news strengthens interest in specialised components and software that squeeze more efficiency out of the infrastructure already installed. Chip export rules and geopolitics remain the main risk to this outlook, so any plan that relies on cheap compute should include a fallback scenario.
Read the original on ASML (GlobeNewswire)
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