ASML had a record quarter. The Dutch lithography maker reported third-quarter net sales of €11.7 billion on Wednesday, up from €7.5 billion a year ago, with a 57.5% gross margin and €5.0 billion in net income. It sold 121 lithography systems, compared with 72 in the same quarter last year.
The profit number comes with an asterisk. About €510 million of it is a gain on ASML's stake in Mistral AI, which shows up on its own line in the financial statements. Income from operations, the cleaner read on the business, was €5.2 billion, roughly double last year's €2.5 billion.
The line that matters most came from CEO Christophe Fouquet: "In light of their demand visibility, some customers are expressing an interest in placing orders with us for 2029 and even 2030." He also said the supply ASML has planned for 2027 and 2028 won't fully cover what customers want, and the company is looking at ways to push 2028 capacity beyond the 30% increase it had already forecast.
Guidance went up again, the third update this year. ASML now expects 2026 sales of €44 billion to €45 billion (the low end was €43 billion) and fourth-quarter sales of €14.2 billion to €15.2 billion. China is still expected to make up about 20% of the business. During the quarter, Samsung and TSMC both committed to ASML's next-generation High NA EUV machines. Shares were up around 2% in early European trading and are up 56% this year, per CNBC.
ASML is the only company that builds EUV machines, which makes it a good place to check whether chipmakers actually believe the AI buildout will last. Customers asking for delivery slots in 2030 is about as clear an answer as you get.
— via CNBC