Dutch tech giant ASML sees profits rise but warns on 2026
Dutch tech giant ASML said Wednesday it booked higher net profits in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period last year but warned that geopolitical headwinds had darkened the 2026 outlook.
The firm, which makes cutting-edge machines for the manufacture of semiconductors, said net profits came in at 2.3 billion euros, compared with 1.6 billion euros in the second quarter of last year.
However, it warned that the growth outlook for next year was somewhat less rosy than before.
"Looking at 2026, we see that our AI customers' fundamentals remain strong," said Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet in a statement.
"At the same time, we continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macro-economic and geopolitical developments," he cautioned. "Therefore, while we still prepare for growth in 2026, we cannot confirm it at this stage."
When Fouquet presented first-quarter results in April, he also warned of "increased uncertainty" due to tariffs with the situation likely to "remain dynamic for a while."
However, he had reiterated his belief at that stage that 2025 and 2026 would be "growth years."
The firm said its net sales in the second quarter of 2025 came in at 7.7 billion euros, at the upper end of its forecasts of between 7.2 and 7.7 billion euros.
Net bookings, the figures most closely watched in the markets as a predictor of future performance, were 5.6 billion euros, compared to 3.9 billion euros in the first quarter.
Fouquet said he expected sales in the third quarter to come in between 7.4 billion and 7.9 billion euros.
AI market 'very strong'
ASML is a key cog in the global economy, as the semiconductors its machines help to make can power everything from smartphones to missiles.
Longer term, ASML believes the rapidly expanding AI market will push sales up to between 44 and 60 billion euros by 2030.
"I think long term, the semiconductor market remains very strong," said Fouquet. "And I think a lot of people say that AI is really a great opportunity. We have seen again the fundamentals around AI to be very, very strong."
The semiconductor industry has been buffeted by geopolitical headwinds in recent years.
Washington has sought to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, concerned that they could be used to advance Beijing's military systems and otherwise undermine American dominance in AI.
In May, Trump's administration rescinded some export controls on semiconductors.
But Washington also unveiled fresh guidelines warning firms that using Chinese-made high-tech AI semiconductors, specifically tech giant Huawei's Ascend chips, would put them at risk of violating US export controls.
Beijing described the warnings as "typical unilateral bullying and protectionism."
On Tuesday, U.S. tech giant Nvidia announced it would resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China, after Washington pledged to remove licensing curbs that had halted exports.
© 2025 AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
10 minutes ago
- Japan Today
OpenAI releases free, downloadable models in competition catch-up
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a Reddit forum early this year that the artificial intelligence star was on 'the wrong side of history' when it came to being open about the workings of its technology OpenAI on Tuesday released two new artificial intelligence (AI) models that can be downloaded for free and altered by users, to challenge similar offerings by U.S. and Chinese competition. The release of gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b "open-weight language models" comes as the ChatGPT-maker is under pressure to share inner workings of its software in the spirit of its origin as a nonprofit. "Going back to when we started in 2015, OpenAI's mission is to ensure AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that benefits all of humanity," said OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. An open-weight model, in the context of generative AI, is one in which the trained parameters are made public, enabling users to fine-tune it. Meta touts its open-source approach to AI, and Chinese AI startup DeepSeek rattled the industry with its low-cost, high-performance model boasting an open weight approach that allows users to customize the technology. "This is the first time that we're releasing an open-weight model in language in a long time, and it's really incredible," OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman said during a briefing with journalists. The new, text-only models deliver strong performance at low cost, according to OpenAI, which said they are suited for AI jobs like searching the internet or executing computer code, and are designed to be easy to run on local computer systems. "We are quite hopeful that this release will enable new kinds of research and the creation of new kinds of products," Altman said. OpenAI said it is working with partners including French telecommunications giant Orange and cloud-based data platform Snowflake on real-world uses of the models. The open-weight models have been tuned to thwart being used for malicious purposes, according to OpenAI. Altman early this year said his company had been "on the wrong side of history" when it came to being open about how its technology works. He later announced that OpenAI will continue to be run as a nonprofit, abandoning a contested plan to convert into a for-profit organization. The structural issue had become a point of contention, with major investors pushing for better returns. That plan faced strong criticism from AI safety activists and co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company he left in 2018, claiming the proposal violated its founding philosophy. In the revised plan, OpenAI's money-making arm will be open to generate profits but will remain under the nonprofit board's supervision. © 2025 AFP
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
AI has opened the door to a new geopolitics
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo, Japan February 3, 2025. © Reuters Abishur Prakash is the founder of The Geopolitical Business, Inc., a Toronto-based strategy advisory firm, produces the Mr. Geopolitics insights for global leaders, and is the author of (Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence).
The Mainichi
8 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Taiwan's Lai reaffirms defense spending hike above 3% of GDP
TAIPEI (Kyodo) -- Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Tuesday reaffirmed that next year's defense budget is set to exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product, as part of efforts to strengthen the island's self-defense capabilities amid rising tensions with mainland China. Taiwan has allocated about 2.45 percent of its GDP for defense in 2025. Speaking at a regional security forum in Taipei, Lai warned that China's growing military activities in the Taiwan Strait as well as the East and South China seas pose "an unprecedented challenge to the rules-based international order." "As authoritarianism continues to expand, democratic nations must join even closer in solidarity to defend our values," Lai said at the Ketagalan Forum, adding that his government remains committed to maintaining the status quo and ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Cross-strait tensions have been rising since Lai, whom Beijing condemns as a separatist, assumed the presidency in May last year. The mainland considers the self-ruled island as an inalienable part of China's territory and aims to bring it into its fold, by force if necessary. Lai also vowed to advance Taiwan's economic resilience and security by deepening economic and trade cooperation with other countries, including in the sectors of semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Echoing Lai's call for solidarity, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the forum that he hopes the United States, Britain and all European nations will stand with Taiwan and strengthen economic ties as China ramps up pressure on the island. "No one wants war, and certainly no one wants to see Chinese domination of the first island chain," Johnson said, referring to the strategic chain of islands stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines. Communist-ruled China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split in 1949 following a civil war.
