ASML defies DeepSeek fears with massive order growth
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The news: ASML shares surged by over 11% in Amsterdam after the Dutch chip equipment maker reported fourth-quarter bookings of €7.09 billion ($11.85 billion), nearly double analyst expectations of €3.99 billion.
The AI-driven demand countered market concerns following the emergence of Chinese AI firm DeepSeek’s models, which had triggered a tech stock selloff.
But ASML said it will stop reporting quarterly order bookings after 2025, saying they can be “lumpy” and not always a good indicator of business momentum.
CEO Christophe Fouquet said AI remains a major growth driver and that lower costs would expand demand.
The numbers: ASML’s Q4 net income was €2.7 billion on sales of €9.3 billion. Total revenue for 2024 was €28.3 billion.
Part of the revenue recognised in the quarter included two high NA-EUV systems, which are two state-of-the-art lithography machines priced at over €350 million each. The machines were sold to TSMC and Intel.
The US overtook China as ASML’s biggest market, with China’s sales dropping to 27% of total revenue. ASML expects China's share to decline to 20% in 2025 due to trade restrictions.
The company maintained its 2025 revenue forecast of €30-35 billion and announced a total dividend for 2024 of €6.40 per share, a 5% increase.
What they said: "I don't know exactly what DeepSeek can or cannot do, but I say again, anything that will drive costs down is good news for ASML on the long term," Fouquet said.
"We believe that when it comes to the size of our business, the demand will come more from the use of AI" than training large AI models, he said.
"If you want to have an AI chip on your phone, the cost of those chips has to be a fraction of what maybe the hyperscaler can pay for it."
"If the cost doesn't go down, you may continue to sell a few very expensive chips and make a few people very happy, but you will not basically bring this technology to the masses and the volume will remain small."
The sources: Reuters, ASML release
