Dutch firm ASML makes one of the most important pieces of machinery required to manufacture the most advanced chips in the world. U.S. chip curbs have left companies, including ASML, scrambling to figure out what the rules mean in practice.
Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images
ASML, one of the world’s most important semiconductor equipment firm, posted a jump in revenue and profit in the second quarter, but warned of macroeconomic “uncertainties” ahead.
The Dutch company makes expensive machines that are required to manufacture the world’s most advanced chips. It counts giants like TSMC, the world’s biggest contract semiconductor maker, among its customers.
related investing news
But ASML has also been caught in the middle of the U.S.-China technology battle because of the importance of the tools it makes.
Here’s how ASML did in the second quarter versus Refinitiv estimates:
Net sales: 6.9 billion euros ($7.7 billion), compared with 6.72 billion euros expected. That represents a 27% year-on-year rise.
Net profit: 1.9 billion euros, versus 1.82 billion euros expected. That marks a 37.6% year-on-year increase.
ASML said it expects net sales in the third quarter of this year to sit between 6.5 billion euros and 7 billion euros.
The company also raised its outlook for 2023, now anticipating its net sales this year to grow 30% year-on-year, up from a 25% growth estimate previously.
ASML said that the brighter outlook is due to strong revenue from its deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine, which is used to manufacture memory chips. These go into various devices, from smartphones to laptops and servers, and could ultimately be used for artificial intelligence applications.
Still, ASML CEO Peter Wennink warned about macroeconomic uncertainties.
“Our customers across different market segments are currently more cautious due to continued macro-economic uncertainties, and therefore expect a later recovery of their markets. Also, the shape of the recovery slope is still unclear,” Wennink said in a press release.
Companies that design and make chips that go into end products like smartphones have been dealing with high inventory levels of these components. That’s because demand for end products, such as consumer electronics, continues to remain weak.
That means chipmakers are slowing down their output of chips and therefore using ASML tools less, Wennink said in pre-recorded video interview on the company website.
No ‘significant impact’ from China export controls
ASML has been caught up in the U.S. push to cut China off from key technologies, including those involved in the manufacture of advanced semicondcutors.
Last October, the U.S. introduced sweeping export restrictions on certain technologies to China, which Washington fears could be used in military or artificial intelligence applications. The Biden administration has been pressuring allied countries to follow suit with similar restrictions.
In June, the Netherlands — where ASML is headquartered — introduced its own export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment. Companies will require a license from the government to export certain technologies.
At the time, ASML said that these rules likely applied to certain DUV machines that the company sells.
While the Dutch government introduced them in June, they were first floated in March and were “not a major surprise” to Wennink.
“All in all, when you look at export control measures in total, we don’t expect a significant impact on our 2023 year,” but also on the longer term outlook, Wennink added.
The CEO said ASML is waiting to see if there are any further restrictions from the U.S., amid reports that Washington is looking at additional controls on technology exports to China.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) speaks with Microsoft Chief Technology Officer and Executive VP of Artificial Intelligence Kevin Scott during the Microsoft Build conference at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on May 21, 2024.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
Investors can’t get enough of artificial intelligence, despite worries over the sector’s excessively high valuations.
Both Apple and Microsoft reached a market capitalization of over $4 trillion after their shares rose. It was the first time Apple hit that milestone, though it closed just shy of that level.
Tech companies can’t get enough of each other, either.
Nvidia announced a $1 trillion investment in Nokia, which the Finnish company said will go toward developing its AI plans. For those, like me, who remember Nokia as a company that made the most desirable and bullet-proof phones: It primarily produces cellular equipment now.
Meanwhile, with its 27% stake in OpenAI’s for-profit business, Microsoft is potentially sitting on a goldmine — provided AI finds its footing as a sustainable, revenue-generating business in the long run. OpenAI on Tuesday announced it had completed its restructuring as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit arm.
It’s not just Microsoft. Investors who have poured money into tech could potentially gain big — as Cathie Wood of Ark Invest says, “If our expectations for AI … are correct, we are at the very beginning of a technology revolution.”
What you need to know today
And finally…
Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Fall meetings at the IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.
Markets are assigning a nearly 100% probability that the Federal Open Market Committee will approve a second consecutive quarter percentage point, or 25 basis point, reduction in the federal funds rate. The overnight lending benchmark is currently targeted between 4%-4.25%.
Beyond that, policymakers are likely to debate, among other things, the future path of reductions, the challenges posed by a lack of economic data and the timetable for ending the reduction in the Fed’s asset portfolio of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities.
A man walks past a logo of SK Hynix at the lobby of the company’s Bundang office in Seongnam on January 29, 2021.
Jung Yeon-Je | AFP | Getty Images
South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday posted record quarterly revenue and profit, boosted by a strong demand for its high bandwidth memory used in generative AI chipsets.
Here are SK Hynix’s third-quarter results versus LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:
Revenue: 24.45 trillion won ($17.13 billion) vs. 24.73 trillion won
Operating profit: 11.38 trillion won vs. 11.39 trillion won
Revenue rose about 39% in the September quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit surged 62%, year on year.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue was up 10%, while operating profit grew 24%.
SK Hynix makes memory chips that are used to store data and can be found in everything from servers to consumer devices such as smartphones and laptops.
The company has benefited from a boom in artificial intelligence as a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory or HBM chips used to power AI data center servers.
“As demand across the memory segment has soared due to customers’ expanding investments in AI infrastructure, SK Hynix once again surpassed the record-high performance of the previous quarter due to increased sales of high value-added products,” SK Hynix said in its earnings release.
HBM falls into the broader category of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM — a type of semiconductor memory used to store data and program code that can be found in PCs, workstations and servers.
SK Hynix has set itself apart in the DRAM market by getting an early lead in HBM and establishing itself as the main supplier to the world’s leading AI chip designer, Nvidia.
However, its main competitors, U.S.-based Micron and South Korean-based tech giant Samsung, have been working to catch up in the space.
“With the innovation of AI technology, the memory market has shifted to a new paradigm and demand has begun to spread to all product areas,” SK Hynix Chief Financial Officer Kim Woohyun said in the earnings release.
“We will continue to strengthen our AI memory leadership by responding to customer demand through market-leading products and differentiated technological capabilities,” he added.
The HBM market is expected to continue to boom over the next few years to around $43 billion by 2027, giving strong earnings leverage to memory manufacturers such as SK Hynix, MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
“[F]or SK Hynix to continue generating profits, it’ll be important for the company to maintain and enhance its competitive edge,” he added.
A report from Counterpoint Research earlier this month showed that SK Hynix held a leading 38% share of the DRAM market by revenue in the second quarter of the year, increasing its shares after having overtaken Samsung in the first quarter.
The report added that the global HBM market grew 178% year over year in the second quarter, and SK Hynix dominated the space with a 64% share.
Celestica CEO Rob Mionis explained how his company designs and manufactures infrastructure that enables artificial intelligence in a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“If AI is a speeding freight train, we’re laying the tracks ahead of the freight train,” Mionis said.
He pushed back against the notion that the AI boom is a bubble, saying that the technology has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must have.”
Celestica reported earnings Monday after close, managing to beat estimates and raise its full-year outlook. The stock hit a 52-week high during Tuesday’s session and closed up more than 8%. Celestica has had a huge run over the past several months, and shares are currently up 253.68% year-to-date.
Mionis described some of Celestica’s business strategies, including how the Canadian outfit chose to move away from commodity markets and into design and manufacturing. He told Cramer that choice “has paid off in spades” for his company.
Celestica’s focus on design and manufacturing enables the company to “consistently execute at scale,” he added.
He detailed Celestica’s data center work, saying the company makes high-speed networking and storage system for hyperscalers, digital native companies and other enterprise names.
Mionis praised the company’s partnership with semiconductor maker Broadcom, saying Celestica uses Broadcom’s silicon in a lot of its designs.
“What it means for us is when they launch a new piece of silicon — so the Tomahawk 6 is their 1.6 terabyte silicon — when they launch that into the marketplace, they’ll work with us to develop products, and those products end up in the major hyperscalers.”
Jim Cramer’s Guide to Investing
Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every move in the market.
Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust owns shares of Broadcom.