(April 22): ASM International NV projected revenue for the second quarter that exceeded analysts’ estimates, underscoring that artificial intelligence investments are driving demand for the Dutch chip-equipment maker’s gear.
Revenue will be about €980 million for the three months through June, at constant currency, with a range of 5% above or below that level, the Almere, Netherlands-based firm said in a statement after market hours on Tuesday. That compares with the average analyst estimate of €886.8 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ASM shares rose as much as 9.5% to €856.20 apiece on Wednesday morning in Amsterdam, the highest on record.
“With AI adoption broadening and workloads for new use cases scaling up rapidly, compute capacity is increasingly becoming the main constraint, driving accelerated investment in AI infrastructure,” CEO Hichem M’Saad said in the statement. That is “increasing both customer investments and the urgency for tool deliveries", he said.
As listed firms from Alphabet Inc to startups such as OpenAI earmark billions for the build-out of data centres and related infrastructure this year alone, chip-equipment firms are also reaping the benefits. ASM has seen the soaring appetite for high-performance chips, which are needed to power data centres, trickle down in terms of demand for its technologies.
Christophe Fouquet, the CEO of Dutch lithography tool maker ASML Holding NV, said this month that demand for chips is “outpacing supply", prompting chipmakers to accelerate their plans to add capacity. The company raised its full-year sales outlook on the back of the AI boom.
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ASM makes what are known as deposition tools, which are used to build advanced chips. It has seen strong momentum from customers transitioning to the 2-nanometre technology node for so-called gate-all-around chip architecture, where its machines can deposit layers that are one atom thick to make more efficient chips.
The company said it sees initial investments in pre-commercial production lines for 1.4-nanometre chip technology in the second half of this year, which ASM expects to further expand the size of the market. It also outlined increased growth from China this year.
“End‑market demand continues to be primarily driven by AI, even as the broader backdrop has become more uncertain amid the Middle East conflict, rising energy prices and potential implications for global GDP growth,” M’Saad said.
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ASM stopped disclosing quarterly bookings starting in the first quarter, saying the metric isn’t truly reflective of its business. Revenue in the period rose to €862.5 million from a year earlier, the company said, beating estimates.
“The demand drivers are as expected, namely AI-driven advanced logic, but the magnitude is even greater,” Citi analyst Andrew Gardiner said in a note to clients.
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