ASML revealed bookings of just EUR2.6 billion ($3.71 billion) in the September quarter, well short of the EUR5.39 billion that most analysts were expecting. For companies in the semiconductor chips ecosystem, bookings are seen as a good predictor of earnings over the next several quarters. ASML now expects net sales for 2025 to come in between EUR30 billion and EUR35 billion, in the lower half of the range it had previously guided.
Towards the end of the European trading day on Oct 15, Dutch chip equipment giant ASML Holdings, which has a monopoly on making machines and tools used to manufacture the most advanced chips like those used train large language artificial intelligence (AI) models, inadvertently revealed its third-quarter earnings as well as guidance for the fourth quarter on its website.
Though US tech giants do not start reporting their quarterly earnings until the end of this month, two foreign bellwethers — ASML and its biggest client, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) — traditionally report a week earlier, giving tech investors a semblance of what to expect as the earnings season gathers pace.
