A logo on the exterior of the ASML Holding NV headquarters in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.
Peter Boer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Dutch semiconductor giant ASML on Wednesday reported a big jump in fourth-quarter net bookings, suggesting strong demand for its advanced chipmaking tools even as DeepSeek’s low-cost model raises concerns over AI spending.
ASML shares surged more than 11% at 8:24 a.m. London time as investor reacted to the results.
Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the fourth quarter:
Net sales: 9.26 billion euros versus 9.07 billion euros expected.
Net profit: 2.69 billion euros versus 2.64 billion euros expected.
ASML said that net bookings, a key indicator of order demand, came in at 7.09 billion euros.
That was up 169% from the 2.63 billion euros ASML reported in the third quarter, and exceeded the 3.99 billion euros expected by analysts polled by Visible Alpha, according to Reuters.
ASML suffered losses during a global tech sell-off earlier in the week after the rollout of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model, which claims to undercut OpenAI on both cost and performance.
The move triggered questions over eyewatering spending from the likes of leading AI players OpenAI and Microsoft on Nvidia graphics processing units, which are needed to train and run the most advanced AI models.
This could hit demand for ASML’s high-precision extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines, which are used to print the most advanced microchips. EUV tools accounted for 3 billion euros of ASML’s fourth-quarter net bookings.
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet struck a positive note on the arrival of low-cost AI models such as DeepSeek, telling CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal that he expects this development to drive more demand for semiconductors — not less.
While he declined to comment on specifics with DeepSeek’s R1, Fouquet said that he sees no sign of a slowdown in demand for AI-focused chips.
“A lower cost of AI could mean more applications. More applications means more demand over time. We see that as an opportunity for more chips demand,” Fouquet said in an interview Wednesday.
There is “a lot of discussion” in the industry surrounding DeepSeek, but Fouquet said ASML hasn’t heard from customers asking about the impact of the Chinese firm’s model on chip demand.
Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said that the earnings report offered “reassurance to the market following the turmoil due to concerns around DeepSeek.”
Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that ASML’s fourth-quarter results vindicate the view that the chip firm isn’t “overvalued” or “full of puff.” ASML is Morningstar’s top AI pick in Europe, he added.
“Genuinely, we think the numbers support the [investment] case and, actually, we think the shares are worth more like 850 (euros) — which, given the pullback you’ve seen in the last few weeks, offers a pretty good opportunity for investors,” Field said Wednesday.
ASML shares closed at 646.60 euros per share Tuesday.
Slowdown in China demand
Fouquet added that ASML’s expecting a rebalancing of demand in China in 2025. Over the past two years, ASML saw heightened demand for its chipmaking tools in the country as Chinese firms stocked up to get ahead of U.S. restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductor machines.
“We had a huge backlog in China, at the end of 2022, because 2022 was a year we couldn’t feed the market with all the tools the market needed. This has kind of been absorbed last year,” Fouquet told CNBC.
He added that ASML expects to return to a more “normal” demand ratio in China, compared with other markets this year.
“We expect the ratio of our business in China to be lower than what it has been for sure in 23, 24,” Fouquet added.
FILE PHOTO: Ariel Cohen during a panel at DLD Munich Conference 2020, Europe’s big innovation conference, Alte Kongresshalle, Munich.
Picture Alliance for DLD | Hubert Burda Media | AP
Navan, a developer of corporate travel and expense software, expects its market cap to be as high as $6.5 billion in its IPO, according to an updated regulatory filing on Friday.
The company said it anticipates selling shares at $24 to $26 each. Its valuation in that range would be about $3 billion less than where private investors valued Navan in 2022, when the company announced a $300 million funding round.
CoreWeave, Circle and Figma have led a resurgence in tech IPOs in 2025 after a drought that lasted about three years. Navan filed its original prospectus on Sept. 19, with plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NAVN.”
Last week, the U.S. government entered a shutdown that has substantially reduced operations inside of agencies including the SEC. In August, the agency said its electronic filing system, EDGAR, “is operated pursuant to a contract and thus will remain fully functional as long as funding for the contractor remains available through permitted means.”
Cerebras, which makes artificial intelligence chips, withdrew its registration for an IPO days after the shutdown began.
Navan CEO Ariel Cohen and technology chief Ilan Twig started the company under the name TripActions in 2015. It’s based in Palo Alto, California, and had around 3,400 employees at the end of July.
For the July quarter, Navan recorded a $38.6 million net loss on $172 million in revenue, which was up about 29% year over year. Competitors include Expensify, Oracle and SAP. Expensify stock closed at $1.64on Friday, down from its $27 IPO price in 2021.
Navan ranked 39th on CNBC’s 2025 Disruptor 50 list, after also appearing in 2024.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaking with CNBC’s Jim Cramer during a CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer event at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 7th, 2025.
Kevin Stankiewicz | CNBC
Shares of Amazon, Nvidia and Tesla each dropped around 5% on Friday, as tech’s megacaps lost $770 billion in market cap, following President Donald Trump’s threats for increased tariffs on Chinese goods.
With tech’s trillion-dollar companies occupying an increasingly large slice of the U.S. market, their declines send the Nasdaq down 3.6% and the S&P 500 down 2.7%. For both indexes, it was the worst day since April, when Trump said he would slap “reciprocal” duties on U.S. trading partners.
After market close on Friday, Trump declared in a social media post that the U.S. would impose a 100% tariff on China and on Nov. 1 it would apply export controls “on any and all critical software.”
Amazon, Nvidia and Tesla all slipped about 2% in extended trading following the post.
The president’s latest threats are disrupting, at least briefly, what had been a sustained rally in tech, built on hundreds of billions of dollars in planned spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
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In late September, Nvidia, which makes graphics processing units for training AI models, became the first company to reach a market cap of $4.5 trillion. Nvidia alone saw its market capitalization decline by nearly $229 billion on Friday.
OpenAI counts on Nvidia’s GPUs from a series of cloud suppliers, including Microsoft. OpenAI is only seeing rising demand.
In September it introduced the Sora 2 video creation app, and this week the company said the ChatGPT assistant now boasts over 800 million weekly users. But Microsoft must buy infrastructure to operate its cloud data centers. Microsoft’s market cap dropped by $85 billion on Friday.
The sell-off wiped out Amazon’s gains for the year. That stock is now down 2% so far in 2025. It competes with Microsoft to rent out GPUs from its cloud data centers, but it doesn’t have major business with OpenAI. The online retailer is now worth $121 billion less than it was on Thursday.
“There continues to be a lot of noise about the impact that tariffs will have on retail prices and consumption,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in July. “Much of it thus far has been wrong and misreported. As we said before, it’s impossible to know what will happen.”
Tesla, which introduced lower-priced vehicles on Tuesday, saw its market capitalization sink by $71 billion.
The automaker reports third-quarter results on Oct. 22, with Microsoft earnings scheduled for the following week. Nvidia reports in November.
Google parent Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta fell 2% and almost 4%, respectively.
Govini, a defense tech software startup taking on the likes of Palantir, has blown past $100 million in annual recurring revenue, the company announced Friday.
“We’re growing faster than 100% in a three-year CAGR, and I expect that next year we’ll continue to do the same,” CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan in an interview. With how “big this market is, we can keep growing for a long, long time, and that’s really exciting.”
CAGR stands for compound annual growth rate, a measurement of the rate of return.
The Arlington, Virginia-based company also announced a $150 million growth investment from Bain Capital. It plans to use the money to expand its team and product offering to satisfy growing security demands.
In recent years, venture capitalists have poured more money into defense tech startups like Govini to satisfy heightened national security concerns and modernize the military as global conflict ensues.
The group, which includes unicorns like Palmer Luckey’s Anduril, Shield AI and artificial intelligence beneficiary Palantir, is taking on legacy giants such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, that have long leaned on contracts from the Pentagon.
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Dougherty, who previously worked at Palantir, said she hopes the company can seize a “vertical slice” of the defense technology space.
The 14-year-old Govini has already secured a string of big wins in recent years, including an over $900-million U.S. government contract and deals with the Department of War.
Govini is known for its flagship AI software Ark, which it says can help modernize the military’s defense tech supply chain by better managing product lifecycles as military needs grow more sophisticated.
“If the United States can get this acquisition system right, it can actually be a decisive advantage for us,” Dougherty said.
Looking ahead, Dougherty told CNBC that she anticipates some setbacks from the government shutdown.
Navy customers could be particularly hard hit, and that could put the U.S. at a major disadvantage.
While the U.S. is maintaining its AI dominance, China is outpacing its shipbuilding capacity and that needs to be taken “very seriously,” she added.