ASML CEO: AI demand to outstrip supply for years as profits beat forecasts

ASML occupies an unusual position: it is the world's only provider of the machines that make cutting-edge chips, so its results and outlook carry weight well beyond its own business. The company reported bumper profits that far exceeded analyst expectations, and its share price rose on the news. Europe's most valuable company, as the body describes it, also had its CEO weigh in directly on the question dominating global markets — whether AI spending is cresting.

That question has been sharpened by rising borrowing costs. The International Monetary Fund warned that a market correction posed a threat to the global economy, the body notes, reflecting broad investor concern that AI spending may be peaking. Against that backdrop, the CEO's statement that AI demand would outstrip supply for years to come offers a counterpoint from the one supplier whose order book sits upstream of it all.

For now, the spending picture the body paints is still strong: Goldman Sachs expects AI infrastructure investment to drive a $7.6 trillion boom through 2031. The tension is therefore between that forward-looking optimism and the immediate anxiety about a bubble — with ASML's profit beat and the CEO's confidence tilting sentiment, at least momentarily, toward the former.