ASML bookings blow past estimates as SK Hynix plans capital-expenditure boost

By Steve Goldstein

ASML to cut 1,700 jobs, both in the Netherlands and the U.S.

CEO of Dutch tech giant ASML, Christophe Fouquet (L) and CFO of ASML, Roger Dassen (R) presided over a surge in fourth-quarter bookings.

Rarely have two earnings reports so neatly aligned, as microchip equipment maker ASML Holding reported surprisingly strong orders growth and memory-chip producer SK Hynix said it would make a "considerable increase" in capital expenditure.

Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML said its bookings in the fourth quarter surged 86% to EUR13.16 billion ($15.76 billion) - trouncing Visible Alpha-compiled estimates of EUR6.95 billion.

"In the last months, many of our customers have shared a notably more positive assessment of the medium-term market situation, primarily based on more robust expectations of the sustainability of AI-related demand. This is reflected in a marked step-up in their medium-term capacity plans and in our record order intake," said CEO Christophe Fouquet in a statement.

ASML shares (NL:ASML) (ASML) jumped 6% in midday trade. The stock has more than doubled from the lows in April.

The ASML bookings surge came not just from companies making memory chips but also logic chips, the so-called "brains" of computers.

ASML's profit in the fourth quarter rose 5% to EUR2.89 billion on 5% sales growth to EUR9.72 billion. Analysts had expected a EUR2.94 billion profit on EUR9.59 billion in sales.

ASML guided to 2026 sales between EUR34 billion and EUR39 billion on a gross margin between 51% and 53%, wrapping analyst estimates of EUR35.26 billion in sales and a 52.8% gross margin.

ASML started a new stock buyback plan worth up to EUR12 billion through 2028 and said it's raising its dividend by 17%, to EUR7.50 a share.

ASML did announce a "streamlining of the technology and the IT organizations" that amounts to 1,700 job cuts out of its workforce of 43,520. Those cuts will mostly be in the Netherlands but with "some" in the U.S., ASML said.

Icheon, South Korea-based SK Hynix (KR:000660) meanwhile reported a 90% profit increase in the fourth quarter to 15.22 trillion won ($11 billion) on a 66% surge in revenue to 32.83 trillion won.

Hynix shares jumped 5% ahead of the report in Seoul. The stock has soared 29% just this year and 281% over the last 52 weeks. Korean rival Samsung Electronics (KR:005930), as well as Micron Technology (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK), all have seen their stocks surge.

Hynix said computing workloads are shifting from high-performance servers to distributed architectures with the proliferation of AI inference demand. That's putting more importance on memory as the focus of system efficiency shifts from computing power to data movement and storage.

The company did flag a "short-term shipment adjustment" for PCs and smartphones due to rising component cost and weaker consumer sentiment.

Hynix says it's the only company that can reliably deliver both the HBM3E standard of chips that can be used with Nvidia's (NVDA) Blackwell line, as well as the HBM4 that will be used in Nvidia's Rubin line.

ASML's Fouquet said customers are ramping up to meet very tight supply both for HBM as well as the DDR chips that are used in PCs and laptops.

-Steve Goldstein

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01-28-26 0730ET