AMSL is about to announce its second quarter results, becoming the focus of attention in the industry. This is the first performance report since the company's new CEO Christophe Fouquet took office. As the largest technology company in Europe, the company plays an important role in the chip battle between China and the United States.

According to Reuters, ASML expects to receive a large number of new orders when the new CEO releases the second quarter performance report, as customers expand production capacity to meet the growing demand for AI chips. Analysts say that as cutting-edge chip manufacturers including TSMC, which manufactures chips for Nvidia and Apple, may increase and accelerate equipment purchases and improve performance guidance.

At present, ASML dominates the lithography system market and is the only lithography system manufacturer that uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. TSMC needs this technology to manufacture the most complex chips in smartphones and AI chips.

Kevin Wang, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said, "We expect ASML's order value in the second quarter to be close to 5 billion euros, higher than market consensus expectations." This includes TSMC's large number of orders for ASML EUV product lines. According to LSEG data, based on the average estimate of 16 analysts, it is expected that the net profit for the second quarter will be 1.41 billion euros and the operating income will be 6.04 billion euros. Compared with the same period last year (net profit of 1.94 billion euros and operating income of 6.9 billion euros), the performance has declined in the first half of this year.

ASML, with a market value of approximately 400 billion euros (437 billion US dollars), describes 2024 as a "transitional" year where business will remain stable, and then expects a strong rebound in 2025 driven by demand for the company's most advanced tools. The stock price of the group has risen by 45% this year, with trading prices approaching over 1000 euros per share, which is about 40 times higher than the STOXX Europe 600 Technology Index that predicts profits for the next 12 months, setting a new historical high.

Another concern of Asma is whether enterprises in Chinese Mainland will continue to buy a large number of equipment for manufacturing old generation chips (such as chips used in electric vehicles), which is a sharp issue for western policy makers who limit the purchase of more advanced technologies.

Although the continuously growing orders will make investors believe that the company's demand for state-of-the-art products is recovering after experiencing a slump in the first half of 2024, the company heavily relied on orders for old equipment from China in the first half of this year - a Chinese chip manufacturer that has been unable to obtain ASML's new tools due to US led export restrictions. Over the past year, the company has increased its purchases of old equipment, even accounting for nearly half of its sales. Therefore, orders from the restricted Chinese market remain a significant destabilizing factor for ASML's performance fluctuations.

The rapid growth of enterprises in Chinese Mainland means that Asme is likely to lose market share in the near future. Asme believes that, as shown by the shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the world still needs the old generation of chips, the increase in supply of enterprises in Chinese Mainland means that competition will be more intense in the future.

At present, ASML has a backlog of 38 billion euros in orders, which means it needs to receive 4 billion to 6 billion euros in new orders every quarter to meet the upper limit of sales in the range of 30 billion to 40 billion euros by 2025. The company's lithography machines are priced at up to $300 million per unit and have a delivery cycle of 12-18 months. The company works closely with customers including Samsung, Intel, and memory experts SK Hynix and Micron.