ASML

ASML Holding N.V. is a Dutch company that designs and builds photolithography systems — the machines that print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers — and is the world's sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, without which leading-edge semiconductors cannot be mass-produced. Because every advanced AI accelerator depends on chips patterned with ASML tools, the company occupies a strategic position at the base of the artificial intelligence supply chain, and in June 2026 it became the first European company ever to pass a US$700 billion market valuation.^[1]

History

ASML was founded in 1984 as a joint venture between electronics group Philips and chip equipment maker ASM International, and is based in Veldhoven in the southern Netherlands.^[2] Betting on a generation of lithography that much of the industry considered impossible, the company spent more than two decades developing EUV technology, which uses 13.5-nanometre light to etch finer features than conventional deep ultraviolet (DUV) systems.^[2] The persistence paid off: ASML now holds effectively 100% of the EUV market, and its machines pattern the most critical layers of the leading-edge chips produced by TSMC, Samsung and Intel.^[2]

FY2025 was the company's thirteenth consecutive year of growth, with record net sales of €32.7 billion, up 16% year on year, and net income of €9.6 billion.^[3] By mid-2026 its shares had risen sharply — up 62% for the year to September — and in September 2026 the company broke ground on a major expansion of its Veldhoven campus that will eventually add space for up to 20,000 workers, with a first phase targeted for completion by 2029.^[4]

Technology

Modern chipmaking works like photographic printing at nanometre scale: light is projected through a patterned mask onto a light-sensitive layer on the wafer. DUV systems use 193-nanometre light, while EUV systems generate 13.5-nanometre light by firing a laser at droplets of molten tin inside a vacuum and then guiding it with an elaborate system of ultra-flat mirrors supplied by Carl Zeiss SMT. Each EUV system contains tens of thousands of parts and is shipped in multiple freight containers.^[2] The newest High-NA EUV machines, which enable sub-2-nanometre process nodes, cost in the region of US$350–400 million each.^[2]

Market and Geopolitics

ASML's near-monopoly has made it a focal point of export controls. The Netherlands, under pressure from Washington, has restricted advanced equipment sales to China, and ASML has never shipped an EUV system to the country.^[1] China accounted for roughly 33% of sales in 2025 through purchases of older DUV tools, but that share is expected to fall to around 20% in 2026, placing several billion euros of revenue at risk; United States officials have also raised concerns about possible access to advanced tooling through third parties.^[5] Demand from the AI buildout continues to outpace these restrictions: ASML's own 2030 sales target of at least €44 billion is considered conservative by some analysts, who forecast closer to €60 billion.^[5]

>See Also

• TSMC
• NVIDIA
• AI Chip Export Controls
• Penang's Semiconductor and AI Ecosystem
• High Bandwidth Memory