ASML: The Dutch Company at the Heart of the Global AI Chip Race
ASML Netherlands employs around 42,000 people globally, with its headquarters and the core of its engineering base in Eindhoven. Based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, it makes the machines that make the chips that power everything from smartphones to artificial intelligence data centres. Without ASML, the world’s most advanced semiconductors cannot be manufactured. And right now, with AI driving chip demand to record levels, ASML is at the centre of one of the most consequential technology races in history.
What ASML Does
ASML makes lithography machines, the equipment used to print the microscopic circuitry onto silicon wafers that become computer chips. Its most advanced machines use extreme ultraviolet light, or EUV, to etch features so small they are measured in nanometres, a nanometre being one billionth of a metre.
ASML is the only company in the world that can make EUV machines. Its most advanced systems, the High-NA EUV tools introduced in 2025, cost more than $400 million each and require components from over 5,000 suppliers across 40 countries. A single machine contains more than 100,000 parts and takes years to build.
Every leading-edge chip used in AI systems, from Nvidia’s graphics processors to Apple’s mobile chips, is manufactured using ASML equipment. The company sits at a chokepoint in the global technology supply chain that gives it a strategic importance far beyond its size.
The Numbers: A Record Year in Progress
ASML’s first quarter 2026 results, published in April, confirmed the AI-driven boom is real and accelerating. The company reported:
- Net sales of €8.8 billion in Q1 2026, up 13 percent year on year
- Net income of €2.8 billion, up 17 percent year on year
- Gross margin of 53 percent, one of the highest in the industry
Following the results, ASML raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to €36 to €40 billion, up from the previous range of €34 to €39 billion. CEO Christophe Fouquet was direct in his assessment: “Demand for chips is outpacing supply. Our customers are accelerating their capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond.”
To meet demand, ASML plans to ship 60 of its bestselling Low-NA EUV systems in 2026, 25 percent more than in 2025, and is building capacity to ship 80 in 2027. The company is investing $2.2 billion in new facilities to support the ramp.
Why AI Is Driving This
The explosion in AI investment is creating extraordinary demand for the most advanced chips. Every large language model, every AI data centre, every autonomous system requires vast amounts of computing power built on cutting-edge semiconductors.
ASML’s machines are essential to manufacturing these chips. As AI companies like Nvidia, AMD, and the hyperscalers pour billions into expanding their chip production capacity, orders flow to TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, which in turn order more EUV machines from ASML. The company ended 2025 with a backlog of €38.8 billion, providing years of revenue visibility.
The High-NA EUV system, ASML’s newest and most powerful product, is now commercially deployed with Intel as the first customer for its 14A process node targeting 2027 production. TSMC and Samsung are expected to adopt High-NA at scale by 2028 and 2029. By 2028, High-NA alone could represent €6 to €7 billion in annual revenue from a product line that barely existed 18 months ago.
The China Question
ASML’s relationship with China is one of the most closely watched dimensions of global technology policy. China has been by far the largest buyer of ASML’s older DUV machines in recent years, as Chinese chipmakers raced to stockpile equipment before export restrictions tightened further.
That dynamic is now shifting sharply. China accounted for 19 percent of ASML’s system sales in Q1 2026, down from 36 percent in the previous quarter. ASML has never been allowed to sell its EUV machines to China. Dutch export controls, tightened progressively since 2023 under pressure from the United States, now also restrict exports of advanced DUV machines and measurement equipment to Chinese buyers.
The geopolitical dimension is significant. The Dutch government has acted as a key node in the Western effort to limit China’s access to advanced chip manufacturing technology, calculating that preserving ASML’s strategic value to Western allies outweighs the commercial cost of restricting China sales. The Nexperia dispute, covered separately on NLDaily, is another manifestation of the same Dutch concern about Chinese access to sensitive semiconductor technology.
The revenue loss from China is real but manageable. Revenue from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the United States has grown strongly to compensate, reflecting the broader acceleration of chip investment in democratic economies.
ASML and the Netherlands
ASML employs around 42,000 people globally, with its headquarters and the core of its engineering base in Eindhoven. The company is the Netherlands’ most valuable listed company and one of the most valuable in Europe.
Its presence has made Eindhoven one of Europe’s most important technology hubs. The Brainport Eindhoven ecosystem, centred on ASML and its supplier network, attracts significant international talent and investment. The Dutch government has invested heavily in the infrastructure and housing needed to support the region’s growth, though the housing shortage affects tech workers there as much as anywhere in the Netherlands.
The strategic importance of ASML to both the Netherlands and to Western technology supply chains means it occupies a unique position: a private company that has become a matter of national and international security policy.
What Comes Next
ASML’s own long-term guidance points to revenue of €44 to €60 billion by 2030, as High-NA EUV scales and memory chip investment adds another wave of demand on top of logic chip growth.
The main risks are tighter export controls further restricting China sales, a slowdown in AI investment if the current boom cycle moderates, and the remote but non-zero possibility that a competitor eventually develops a viable alternative to EUV lithography. None of these risks appears imminent. For now, ASML remains the indispensable machine maker at the heart of the global AI race, and its Eindhoven headquarters sits at the centre of the world’s most strategically important technology supply chain.
