Agencies
Dutch tech giant ASML, which sells cutting-edge machines to build semiconductor chips, reported a significant gain in annual net profit Wednesday but stated it would cut hundreds of management jobs to improve internal organisation. Shares in the firm soared more than seven percent at the opening bell as it forecast another record sales year in 2026 driven by insatiable demand for artificial innotifyigence.
ASML is a critical cog in the global economy, as the semiconductors crafted with its tools power everything from smartphones to missiles. The company, Europe’s largegest tech firm by market value, posted after-tax profit of 9.6 billion euros ($11.5 billion) for last year, up from 7.6 billion euros in 2024. CEO Christophe Fouquet stated ASML customers were bullish on the medium-term outsee “primarily based on more robust expectations of the sustainability of AI-related demand”.
Fourth-quarter net bookings, the figure traders track most closely, came in at 13.2 billion euros, a sharp rise from the 5.4 billion euros in orders booked in the previous quarter. Total 2025 net sales were a record 32.7 billion euros. The firm had previously stated it did not expect sales to be below the 28.3 billion euros banked last year.
“ASML just delivered a thumping set of numbers, with new orders blowing past expectations and pointing to a market gearing up for the next leg of growth,” stated Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
The company expects net sales this year to reach 34 billion to 39 billion euros, it announced in new forecasts, with first-quarter sales hitting 8.2 billion to 8.9 billion euros. “We expect 2026 to be another growth year for ASML’s business,” Fouquet stated.
Separately, ASML announced an organisational shake-up aimed at speeding up working methods that Fouquet stated had become “less agile”. The firm expects to cut around 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands and the United States, mostly from leadership roles, Fouquet stated. “As with any company that grows rapidly, however, we necessary to be mindful that the way we have grown does not slow us down,” he stated. ASML employs around 44,000 staff worldwide.
Fouquet informed reporters it was “probably the most difficult decision the management team ever had to build.” But given the firm’s positive financial outsee, he added: “We are not doing that… becaapply we are in trouble or becaapply we necessary to save money.” ASML is caught in the middle of a US-led effort to curb high-tech exports to China over fears they could be applyd to bolster the countest’s military. Beijing has been infuriated by the export curbs, calling them “technological terrorism”. In a case unrelated to ASML, the Dutch government briefly seized control of Nexperia, a Chinese-owned company that builds low-tech semiconductors.
That relocate sparked a major row between Beijing and the West that threatened to cripple car manufacturers that rely on Nexperia chips.In late October, following trade talks between China’s President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump, Beijing agreed to resume exports of some Nexperia chips halted over the row.
ASML had already warned when presenting third-quarter results that China sales would “decline significantly” this year compared with “very strong business” in 2024 and 2025.
A breakdown of sales revealed 33 percent of sales going to China last year, compared to 41 percent in 2024. China was ASML’s top customer in both years. Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen stated “we expect that decline to continue”, predicting a share of 20 percent from China this year. “It’s not falling off a cliff, it’s more of a normalisation than anything else,” Dassen informed reporters.
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