Finance
ASML shrugs off DeepSeek worries, reports big influx of orders in Q4
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
ASML reports Q4 bookings of 7.088 billion euros, exceeding expectations despite concerns over DeepSeek's AI model impacting chip demand.
By Nathan Vifflin and Toby Sterling
Eindhoven, NETHERLANDS (Reuters) -Shrugging off fears prompted by Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, Dutch computer chip equipment maker ASML on Wednesday reported better than expected fourth-quarter bookings of 7.088 billion euros ($7.39 billion), on strong demand for its advanced tools.
Analysts had predicted bookings at 3.99 billion euros, according to polling by Visible Alpha, an increase from 2.63 billion euros in the third quarter of 2024.
The large order influx may reassure ASML and other chip stock investors that AI chip prospects remain healthy, despite a selloff this week sparked by the release of DeepSeek's model, which uses less computing power than those of rivals.
"The growth in artificial intelligence is the key driver for growth in our industry," ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said in a statement.
DeepSeek's launch has called into question whether tech giants, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, will need to follow through on plans for huge investments in AI chips. ASML's top customer, TSMC, manufactures most chips designed by Nvidia and the software firms.
ASML reported fourth quarter net income of 2.7 billion euros on sales of 9.3 billion euros, rising from 2.1 billion euros of net income on sales of 7.5 billion euros in the third quarter of 2024.
The numbers beat expectations "from bookings to bottom line," said Michael Roeg, an analyst for Degroof Petercam. He cautioned that ASML is "too far from the fire" to really be able to answer whether DeepSeek's advent marks a major change in market trends.
"That is for the large data centre operators to answer in their conference calls, and for Nvidia to answer in their conference call," he said.
($1 = 0.9579 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Gerry Doyle)
The article discusses ASML's strong Q4 order performance amid concerns over DeepSeek's AI model impact on chip demand.
ASML reported Q4 bookings of 7.088 billion euros and a net income of 2.7 billion euros, surpassing expectations.
DeepSeek's AI model raised concerns about reduced demand for high-power AI chips, impacting market sentiment.
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