ASML shares rise in the stock market because chips are the new oil

NVIDIA’s growth in recent months has been impressive. The company had surpassed Apple in market valuation (though it was now back in third place) and was 5% away from surpassing Microsoft to become the world’s most important. Artificial intelligence has brought it to this point, but the technology has also galvanized other major players in the semiconductor industry. And among them is the great jewel in the European crown.

ASML at an all-time high. ASML Holding NV has become the second largest European company in the world. It overtook LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) in market capitalization for the first time after its shares rose 8.1% this week.

TSMC drives growth. A noticeable increase in the value of ASML occurred thanks to TSMC. This week it became known that the Taiwanese giant will receive its high-performance electric car at the end of the year. It is the most powerful specimen ever created, and each specimen is priced at 350 million euros.

Only Ozempic is ahead. Danish company Novo Nordisk, the creator of Ozempic, is the only one currently ahead. Or rather, far ahead, because its current market value is $634.28 billion compared to ASML’s $415.34 billion.

Amazing decade. However, ASML’s growth over the past ten years has been astounding. In June 2014, its market capitalization was approximately $40.5 billion, and during this time the Dutch company managed to become the absolute benchmark in the world of semiconductors. In fact, its capitalization has grown tenfold.

And it promises. While the past few weeks have been challenging and first-quarter results were muted, analyst forecasts are optimistic as they indicate “significant” orders are expected in the coming quarters. TSMC’s intention to increase 2nm photolithography volumes in the second half of 2025, for example, is a good sign that ASML will do just as well (or even better) in the coming months.

Chips are the new oil. Big tech companies occupy the top five positions in the ranking of the world’s largest companies, but their growth in recent months has been impressive. The insatiability of the semiconductor industry market has led to the growth of companies such as TSMC itself (10th place in the world), Broadcom (11th place, with even more impressive growth), Samsung (24th place), AMD (38th place , which is much higher than Intel, which occupies the 113th position) or Qualcomm (48th).

In Hatak | ASML plans to produce lithography equipment with sci-fi features: the Hyper-NA machine.