Dutch firm ASML makes probably the most vital pieces of machinery required to fabricate probably the most advanced chips on the planet. U.S. chip curbs have left corporations, including ASML, scrambling to work out what the foundations mean in practice.
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ASML, probably the most vital semiconductor equipment corporations on the planet, beat top and bottom line expectations, but said it forecasts its revenue for this year will likely be just like that of 2023.
Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates:
- Net sales: 7.2 billion euros ($7.82 billion) versus 6.9 billion euros expected
- Net profit: 2.05 billion euros versus 1.86 billion euros expected
ASML had previously said that it expects fourth-quarter net sales between 6.7 billion euros and 7.1 billion euros with a gross margin between 50% and 51%.
Net sales for the fourth quarter rose 12.5% year-on-year, while the corporate reported a gross margin of 51.4% within the fourth quarter.
ASML said it expects first-quarter net sales of between 5.0 billion euros and 5.5 billion euros.
“We maintain our conservative view for the whole year and expect 2024 revenue to be just like 2023. We also expect 2024 to be a vital year to organize for significant growth that we expect for 2025,” said ASML CEO Peter Wennink said in an announcement on Wednesday.
ASML reported 27.6 billion euros in revenue for 2023, higher than the 21.2 billion euros of the year before. That was a 30% year-on-year rise.
China sales in focus
ASML, a Dutch company that makes a machine required within the manufacturing of the world’s most advanced chips, has been caught within the broader technology battle between the U.S. and China.
The Dutch government, following U.S. pressure, introduced curbs in June on the export of advanced semiconductor equipment. And in October, the U.S. tightened its own export controls on advanced semiconductors and chipmaking tools to China.
This month, ASML said the Dutch government partially revoked its license for the shipment of its NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems in 2023 to China. These are systems required to make less advanced chips.
In a pre-recorded video released Wednesday, ASML Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said the corporate doesn’t expect to get export licenses for the NXT:2000i and more advanced machines. Dassen also said it expects some China chip manufacturing plants to not get export licenses for the NXT:1970i and NXT:1980i immersion tools.
ASML previously said that export restrictions would impact 10% to fifteen% of China sales. There could be an identical impact in 2024, Dassen said.
ASML’s top end tools, often called extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, have never received an export license. Thus far, ASML has not shipped one in all these machines to China.