ASML posts record 2025 profit on AI-driven demand, but plans roughly 1,700 job cuts

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — ASML, one of the world’s most important suppliers of chipmaking equipment, reported record results for 2025 and said it still expects growth ahead, citing strong demand tied to the artificial intelligence boom. At the same time, the company announced plans to cut roughly 1,700 jobs — about 4% of its workforce — describing the move as a way to streamline the organization and sharpen focus on engineering and innovation.

In its annual update, ASML said net profit rose to 9.6 billion euros (about $11.5 billion) in 2025 on sales of 32.7 billion euros, underscoring how deeply AI infrastructure spending is influencing the semiconductor supply chain. Orders and outlook from ASML are closely watched because its lithography systems sit at the heart of advanced chip production, making its performance a bellwether for multi-year chip investment cycles.

The company’s strong numbers come despite export restrictions imposed by the Dutch government on certain high-end systems that can be used to make advanced chips — measures widely viewed as aligning with U.S. efforts to limit China’s access to sensitive technologies. Even with those constraints, ASML indicated that customers have recently become more optimistic about the medium-term market, particularly due to expectations that AI-driven demand will remain durable rather than fleeting.

ASML leadership said the planned job reductions are intended to make the company more efficient and better positioned to execute in a period when manufacturing complexity and customer expectations keep rising. In communications to staff, the company framed the cuts as occurring “at a moment of strength,” emphasizing that process improvements and simplified structures can help accelerate innovation and reduce execution risk.

The layoffs highlight a broader trend in the tech and industrial ecosystem: firms can be simultaneously thriving financially and still reorganizing aggressively to improve productivity. For investors and customers, the combination of record profit and workforce cuts sends mixed signals — confidence in demand, paired with pressure to run leaner while scaling highly complex engineering and supply operations.

Looking forward, ASML said it expects 2026 to be another growth year, supported by continued demand for its most advanced lithography tools. The company’s guidance will likely be scrutinized not only as a snapshot of the semiconductor sector, but also as a proxy for how long the global AI buildout will keep expanding capital spending across chips, data centers, and the equipment needed to manufacture the next generation of processors.