ASML posts record €11.7bn quarter and warns supply will trail demand into 2028
ASML Holding reported record third-quarter results on 14 October 2026, with total net sales of €11.7bn and net income of €5.0bn, according to the press release the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sales came in towards the upper end of the company's own guidance and compared with €9.3bn in the second quarter. Gross margin widened to 57.5 per cent from 54.0 per cent three months earlier.
The scale of the step-up is clearest against the year-earlier period. In the third quarter of 2025 ASML booked net sales of roughly €7.5bn and earnings of €5.49 per share, according to a contemporaneous report by The Fly; this quarter basic earnings per share reached €12.95. The company shipped 113 new lithography systems in the quarter, up from 86 in the second quarter, alongside eight used systems.
Installed-base management, which covers service and upgrades to tools already in customer fabs, contributed €3.3bn of the total. ASML ended the quarter with €12.7bn of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, up from €7.6bn at the end of June, even after repurchasing about €4.1bn of its own shares under the 2026–2028 buyback programme. An interim dividend of €1.88 per share is payable on 4 November.
Guidance moved higher. ASML now expects fourth-quarter net sales of €14.2bn to €15.2bn with a gross margin of around 57 per cent, research and development spending of about €1.2bn and selling, general and administrative costs of about €0.4bn. For the full year, the company guided to net sales of €44bn to €45bn and a gross margin of around 56 per cent.
The more striking disclosure concerned the years beyond. ASML said it now expects that its planned supply for both 2027 and 2028 will not fully meet customer demand, and that it is investigating ways to raise 2028 capacity beyond the 30 per cent increase it had previously communicated. Chief executive Christophe Fouquet said some customers were expressing an interest in placing orders for 2029 and even 2030.
The statement marks a shift in tone from a year ago. In October 2025, according to The Fly, ASML was flagging a significant decline in China sales for 2026 and committing only to the view that 2026 revenue would not fall below 2025 levels. The company did not disclose net bookings or a China share of sales in this release, a change in reporting that leaves investors reliant on guidance rather than order intake to gauge demand.
Results from the equipment maker landed in a week heavy with semiconductor news. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, ASML's largest customer for leading-edge tools, reported third-quarter revenue of US$46.7bn on 15 October and guided to US$52.3bn–54.3bn for the fourth quarter, according to its own filing. Stocktwits noted ahead of the ASML print that analysts had been expecting roughly 56 per cent revenue growth, with attention on bookings, the 2027 outlook and export controls.
Attention now turns to the fourth-quarter report in January 2027, when ASML will set out its first formal 2027 guidance and any revised 2028 capacity plans. The 4 November dividend payment and the pace of the buyback will show how the company is deploying its enlarged cash pile. TSMC's own capital-spending plans for 2027, expected with its fourth-quarter results, will indicate how much of the demand ASML describes is already committed.
