‘Customer yearns for ASML machines’ | Financial

ASML raised its revenue forecast from 12% to 30% three months ago. In the quarter, the company received a record €8.3 billion in orders, while revenue for the past three months itself came in at €4.0 billion, on a net profit of €1 billion.

The company not only sold more machines, but also performed more software upgrades to already delivered devices, in order to increase their production capacity. That generated €1 billion in revenue. The world is plagued by a shortage of semiconductors, which hinders production of cars, but also other devices with chips.

ASML also managed to deliver a new type of EUV machine in the past quarter, which can expose 15 to 20% more silicon wafers than the previous generation. The new device costs around €160 million each, about 10% more than its predecessor.

Future is bright

According to Wennink, his company benefits from three important trends. The world is still dealing with a catch-up effect after the corona pandemic, which will continue into 2022. In addition, there is an increasing demand for chips due to artificial intelligence and the advancement of devices with chips and sensors. “I don’t see that trend changing,” he says. ASML is also benefiting from the pursuit of some degree of ‘technological sovereignty’ by more and more countries: they want their own chip factories within their borders so as not to be too dependent on other power blocs.

According to Wennink, this ensures that the future is ‘bright’ not only for ASML, but for the entire chip industry. “The semiconductor market is now $500 billion, it could be a trillion dollars by the end of this decade.”

Capacity increased

This benefits not only the demand for the most advanced machines, using EUV technology, but also the conventional machines. Wennink announced that it wanted to increase the capacity for EUV machines, which is planned for 55 machines for the coming year, to 60 units. The past quarter

ASML will distribute part of the proceeds to shareholders. An amount of €800 million remaining in the current €6 billion buyback program will be transferred to a new €9 billion buyback operation, Wennink announced.

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