ASML lifts guidance on AI demand

ASML raised its 2026 sales forecast on April 15, saying chipmakers are stepping up spending as artificial intelligence demand keeps outrunning supply. (asml.com) The Dutch company now expects 2026 net sales of €36 billion to €40 billion, up from the €34 billion to €39 billion range it gave on January 28. It kept its 2026 gross margin outlook at 51% to 53%. (asml.com, asml.com) ASML reported first-quarter 2026 net sales of €8.8 billion, gross margin of 53.0%, and net income of €2.8 billion. It said second-quarter sales should come in between €8.4 billion and €9.0 billion. (asml.com) ASML sells the machines that print circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, a step called lithography. Its extreme ultraviolet systems use 13.5-nanometer light and are used to make the most advanced chips for data centers, smartphones and memory. (asml.com, asml.com) The company said customers have increased their short- and medium-term demand forecasts in recent months and are accelerating capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond. Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet said those plans are backed by long-term agreements between chipmakers and their own customers. (asml.com) That demand signal matters because ASML sits near the front of the chip supply chain: when foundries and memory makers order more lithography tools, they are committing billions of euros to future production. ASML said its order intake remains “very strong” and that it is meeting demand through both new systems and upgrades to machines already in the field. (asml.com) The guidance increase also lands as export rules keep tightening around China. ASML said the range of its 2026 outlook is wide enough to absorb possible outcomes from ongoing export-control discussions. (asml.com) Those controls have been hanging over the business for more than a year. In December 2024, ASML said updated restrictions added technologies, including some metrology and software, and added more fab locations in China to the United States list of restrictions. (asml.com) Even with that pressure, ASML ended 2025 with €32.7 billion in net sales, up from €28.3 billion in 2024, and told investors last November it still saw a path to €44 billion to €60 billion in annual revenue by 2030. (asml.com, asml.com) The new forecast does not settle the trade fight around chip tools. It does show that, for now, the money flowing into artificial intelligence infrastructure is still strong enough to push ASML’s outlook higher. (asml.com)