Asml Holding NVASML

ASML just told the world it expects 2026 net sales of €43 billion to €45 billion, a range so aggressively optimistic it makes the Dutch football team’s pre-tournament hype look cautious. The Q2 2026 figures-€9.3 billion in net sales and €2.9 billion in net income-landed with the thud of a precision-engineered wafer dropping into a holder, confirming that the company’s lithography machines are still the only game in town for extreme ultraviolet production. Guidance crept upward from the €36 billion-€40 billion band shared in April, a signal that demand from the world’s most advanced fabs hasn’t blinked despite the usual macro chatter about inventory digestion and capex cycles.

ASML doesn’t just sell machines; it sells access to the future of computing. Its extreme ultraviolet lithography systems are the bottleneck through which every cutting-edge logic and memory node must pass, which is why the company’s order backlog reads like a who’s who of the semiconductor elite. The €11.4 billion of inventory on the balance sheet isn’t just spare parts-it’s deferred revenue waiting for the next node to be greenlit, a bet that the cycle remains intact even as the broader tech narrative wobbles. The €4.7 billion of R&D spend underscores the company’s belief that standing still means losing ground, a philosophy that keeps its engineering floors buzzing with lasers and its investors parsing every wafer-thin margin.

Filed figures for the year ended 31 December 2025 show revenue of €32.7 billion, net income of €9.6 billion, and operating income of €11.3 billion. Cash and equivalents stood at €12.9 billion, while stockholders’ equity clocked in at €19.6 billion-hardly the balance sheet of a company fretting about next quarter’s EPS. Operating cash flow hit €12.7 billion, more than enough to fund €1.6 billion of capex and still leave room for shareholder returns or strategic acquisitions. Diluted EPS of €25 sits alongside 388.9 million diluted shares, a base that has remained stable even as the company’s market capitalisation has flirted with the €300 billion mark (source: ASML 20-F (2026-02-25), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/937966/000162828026011378/asml-20251231.htm).

The filing trail also highlights an €832.5 million increase in inventories during the year, alongside a €237.9 million warranty accrual-small change in the grand scheme, but a reminder that ASML’s machines carry warranties as long as some mortgages. The company’s conflict minerals report, filed in June 2026, is a dry but necessary disclosure that underscores the complexity of global supply chains: ASML’s tools touch jurisdictions, minerals, and logistics networks that would baffle a customs inspector let alone an AI summariser (source: ASML SD (2026-06-05), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/937966/000162828026041057/formsd.htm).

For a deeper dive into the mechanics behind the numbers, the SEC’s EDGAR archive is the place to start. The company’s XBRL data dumps and filing index are less glamorous than a wafer scanner’s light show, but they’re the only route to the raw numbers without recourse to the polished investor-relations slide deck (source: SEC EDGAR filing index, https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=937966; source: SEC companyfacts JSON, https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000937966.json).