ASML, Europe’s most valuable company, sells almost nothing in Europe

Europe’s most valuable publicly traded company makes the machines that produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors. It sells almost none of them to European customers.

ASML, the Dutch photolithography giant, pulled in €32.7 billion in total net sales during its 2025 fiscal year. Of that, a mere €524 million came from the entire EMEA region. That’s 1.6%. The Netherlands itself, where ASML is headquartered, accounted for just €4.7 million. To put that in perspective, ASML’s home country contributed roughly 0.014% of the company’s revenue.

Where the money actually comes from

The real customers are in Asia and, to a lesser extent, the United States. China led the pack at €9.5 billion, representing about 29% of total sales. Taiwan followed closely at €8.3 billion, roughly 26%, while South Korea chipped in €8.2 billion at around 25%. The US accounted for approximately €4.1 billion, or 13%.

Over the past decade, Europe has consistently represented only 1 to 2% of ASML’s shipments. ASML executives have pointed to it repeatedly as evidence of a structural problem in European semiconductor manufacturing.

ASML’s leadership has framed the near-zero European sales as a symptom of the region’s underdeveloped chip fabrication and artificial intelligence sectors. When your continent doesn’t build the fabs, it doesn’t need the machines that go inside them.

The China question and export controls

ASML’s relationship with China is simultaneously lucrative and constrained. While China was the company’s single largest market in 2025, US export restrictions have prevented ASML from ever shipping its most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems to Chinese customers. The company has been limited to selling older deep ultraviolet (DUV) technology in that market.

ASML projects its China sales will decline to around 20% of revenue in 2026, down from roughly 29% in 2025.

Despite the China headwinds, ASML posted record financial results. Net income for 2025 hit €9.6 billion, a 16% jump from the prior year. The primary growth engine was demand for EUV systems, which are indispensable for manufacturing the latest generation of semiconductors.

Europe’s semiconductor gap in stark relief

The European Chips Act, introduced in 2023, aimed to double Europe’s share of global semiconductor production to 20% by 2030. ASML’s sales data suggests the continent has a long way to go.

The issue is that downstream manufacturing happens overwhelmingly in Asia. Taiwan’s TSMC, South Korea’s Samsung, and a cluster of Chinese fabs are where the silicon gets made. Europe has relatively few advanced fabs, which means relatively few orders for ASML’s equipment.

Intel’s planned fab in Magdeburg, Germany, and TSMC’s facility in Dresden represent attempts to change this dynamic.

The continent’s most valuable tech company generates less revenue from its home region than it does from any single Asian market.