A leading manufacturer of AI chip equipment has once again raised its forecast. Demand is growing.

Europe's most valuable company—ASML, a Dutch manufacturer of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment— has raised its sales forecast for the second time this year and announced plans to increase production.

Following this, its shares rose by nearly 8% during trading in Amsterdam. By the close of trading, the shares had lost their gains and even slipped slightly into negative territory, though the company’s market capitalization has jumped 41% since January. The rally is fueled by the artificial intelligence boom: massive investments by tech giants in AI infrastructure are ensuring consistently high demand for ASML, according to Bloomberg.

According to the company’s new forecast, full-year net sales will total €43–45 billion, rather than the previously expected €36–40 billion. This is significantly higher than the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, who had forecast an average of €39.3 billion. The annual gross margin is now forecast to reach 56%—the company’s previous guidance was 53%.

ASML reported that second-quarter sales totaled €9.33 billion—up 21% from a year earlier and up 6% from the first quarter. Net income rose 27% to €2.9 billion. Both figures exceeded analysts’ estimates.

ASML plays a key role in the global semiconductor supply chain, according to Bloomberg. The company—the most valuable in Europe, with a market capitalization exceeding $700 billion—is the world’s sole manufacturer of the highly sophisticated lithography equipment needed to produce cutting-edge chips, including those for Nvidia. As tech giants led by Microsoft and Alphabet pour hundreds of billions of dollars into building AI infrastructure, chipmakers are ramping up production—and this process depends directly on ASML’s supply volumes.

Bloomberg concludes that the company’s main goal is to ensure that production keeps pace with growing demand. The chips manufactured using its equipment are used to train and run AI models, and they are also installed in the data centers that host them.

By the end of 2026, ASML plans to produce approximately 65 EUV lithography systems—machines used to manufacture the most advanced microchips. In 2027, production is expected to increase by about 30%, to 85 machines, and the company plans to expand production by another third in 2028.

Some investors had expected a more aggressive ramp-up as early as 2027—to 90–100 machines, according to Bloomberg. However, analysts at Citi viewed the company’s plans positively: ASML’s willingness to provide the market with a detailed forecast covering two years in advance indicates very high demand, according to their note. If these plans are implemented, production volumes will exceed current market expectations.

According to Reuters, UBS analysts noted in a July 10 report that the construction of new semiconductor factories, combined with demand for cutting-edge AI chips, should help ASML post even stronger results in the second half of the year.

Another positive factor for investors was ASML’s announcement that U.S.-based Intel has already begun using its latest lithography system in the production of some of its flagship Panther Lake processors for laptops. These systems enable more precise patterning on the wafer and are designed for the production of next-generation chips.

Intel has been testing ASML's system since 2024, and it is now being used to create individual layers of the chip, Reuters reports. The agency believes this will allow both Intel and ASML to gather production data and optimize the equipment's performance.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor