By Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Publication Date: 2026-01-29 06:25:00
Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company thanks to its advanced chips that are powering the AI revolution. But it could not succeed without ASML.
The Dutch semiconductor equipment company, one of Europe’s most valuable, makes lithography machines needed to print extremely fine patterns on silicon wafers.
It’s the only company in the world that makes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines used to produce the most advanced semiconductors. It has a 90% share of the wider lithography market.
Bank of America analyst Didier Scemama predicted it would soon have a monopoly in next-generation EUV lithography. “ASML has industrialised next gen EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography technology, which we believe will underpin many of the disruptive trends of this decade,” he wrote in a Wednesday note.
His note came after ASML’s earnings report revealed bookings were more than double analyst expectations in the fourth quarter of 2025.
ASML’s share price
Catching up to ASML ‘is virtually impossible’
Javier Correonero, equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC that lithography was “the building block of any chip,” adding that ASML machines have played a role in the production of 99% of semiconductors.
But it’s EUVs that are crucial for the AI buildout.
ASML makes two types of EUVs: low numerical aperture, used to produce the current generation of AI chips, including the Nvidia Blackwell, and the more-advanced high numerical aperture, used in…